AFCON 2024 is just around the corner and as players finish their club duties to join their countrymen, the hype is building up.
One of the major parts of this hype train are the jersey reveals. Every national wants to don their national pride and go support their team in any capacity the can.
Nigeria, situated on the west side of Africa, will open their campaign against Equatorial Guinea on January 14th at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Ebimpe, Abidjan. Only a short period of time is left for preparations.
Three time winners of AFCON are aiming for a fourth title this year and the leaders have taken the lead in the jersey reveal department too, apparently.
Sponsored by Nike, a photograph of the new Nigerian outfit began making the rounds over the internet.
Covered in green and white, the striped Super Eagle’s new kit looks extremely attractive. In the aforementioned picture it can be seen in two variants, green and white, probably the home and away versions.
It looks like there is some kind of homage going on to the 1996 Nigerian kit. In case you were wondering, the choice of these two colors is because of the green and white Nigerian flag.
But here is the ultimate twist. This is not the truth at all. This isn’t an official release from Nike or the Nigerian National team of the jersey for the upcoming tournament in Côte d’Ivoire.
Some internet sleuths had figured out earlier that it was just a random concept created by Nigerian Sportswear and Graphic designer, Chidubem Victor. He has created such designs for other countries as well.
To confirm this suspicion, even the Nigerian national team has taken out a statement on X, addressing the situation and warning people about the fake news.
This is in precaution to websites that are trying to lure people into buying the fake concepts and many such fake/scam web addresses have popped up.
Even some media houses and enthusiastic social media influencers were making laps with the news without any verification.
There hadn’t been any information regarding this on either Nike or Nigerian football websites/social media. That should have given them some clue in the first place.
However, people have loved the design and want Nike to push it as official kit even if it wasn’t up until now. Even the ones not hailing from the country are in awe of the design and want to buy it.
Nike last unveiled new jerseys for the Nigerian Men’s National team in September 2022 and as things stand right now, it seems like there isn’t any plan to change the status quo.
