Nigeria forward Alex Iwobi has said the Super Eagles are still hoping for a late opening in the race to qualify for the 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, even though the team’s path to the tournament remains unclear.
Iwobi, a 29-year-old midfielder who plays for Fulham Football Club in London, England, described Nigeria’s situation as one of uncertainty, saying the national team is effectively “waiting” as it looks to FIFA for a decision that could reshape its qualification outlook.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and African nations have been battling through qualifiers to earn slots at the global tournament.
Iwobi spoke in an interview with SuperSport Football, a sports broadcaster widely followed across Africa, where he was asked about the disappointment of potentially missing the World Cup. He was also confronted with a difficult question: if he had to choose, would he prefer winning the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Africa’s biggest national team football competition, or securing World Cup qualification?
Iwobi, who played at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, said it was not an easy decision because many of his current teammates have never experienced the World Cup.
“I mean we are still waiting, well hopefully we can go to the World Cup, but I feel it is a tough one,” he said. He explained that lifting the AFCON trophy would be a major career achievement and a lasting memory, but he also feels a responsibility to think about teammates who want to play on football’s biggest stage.
Iwobi said he could not bring himself to be selfish by choosing an AFCON title if it meant other players might lose the chance to appear at a World Cup. “Because I have been to the World Cup already, a lot of the players have not been,” he said, adding that many of them would want to be able to say they played at the tournament. “So it is a tough one. I do not know.”
His comments reflect a wider mood around the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the body that runs football in Nigeria. The NFF is awaiting a response from FIFA after submitting a formal petition connected to Nigeria’s World Cup qualification play-off defeat to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a Central African nation often referred to as DR Congo.
Nigeria lost the decisive match on penalties at the Moulay Hassan Stadium in November, a result that appeared to shut the door on World Cup qualification. However, officials in Nigeria say the team’s chances may not be completely over, depending on what FIFA decides.
According to the petition, the NFF is accusing DR Congo of fielding up to six players it believes were not eligible to take part in the match. The Nigerian federation’s argument focuses on what it calls a “dual nationality trap.” The NFF claims that while FIFA rules allow players to change national team allegiance under certain conditions, DR Congo’s constitution does not allow dual citizenship, raising questions about the status of some players who may have held more than one nationality.
NFF General Secretary Dr Sanusi Mohammed said Nigeria believes it has a strong case and suggested the world football body may have been misled during the process that cleared the players.
“We are waiting,” he said, arguing that DR Congo’s national rules do not permit dual citizenship or nationality. He added that FIFA rules generally consider a player eligible once they hold a valid passport for a country, but Nigeria’s concern is that FIFA was “deceived” into approving the players. “What we are saying is that the process was fraudulent,” he said.
Nigeria’s national team recently won a bronze medal at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, and the Super Eagles are widely seen as one of the strongest squads on the African continent, with many players featuring in top European leagues.
For now, the federation and players can only wait for FIFA’s decision, with Iwobi summarising the situation plainly: “Hopefully we can go to the World Cup.”