Nigeria Premier League (NPL) champion in 2007/2008 season, Kano Pillars, believes that its participation in this year’s edition of the CAF Champions League would improve the side in next season’s campaign of the league.
According to the club’s leading scorer in the just-concluded season, Moses Ogaga, the Kano-based club would become of the forces to be reckoned with in the Premier League.
He immediately pointed to the club’s feat of eliminating Africa’s best side of last century, Al Ahly of Egypt in the qualifying rounds of the CAF Champions League as the turning point in the club’s history.
“Playing in the CAF Champions League for the first time in our history is a good thing for us. By the time the league starts next season, I am sure that we will have so much experienced players in our midst. Another thing is defeating Al Ahly of Egypt after people did not give the chance is something that has given everyone so much confidence now and I believe that it would continue like that into the group stage and into the next season of the Premier League,” he said.
Ogaga, who scored seven goals for Kano Pillars in the last campaign of the Premier League, used Enyimba as an example of a side that benefited playing in the CAF Champions League in about three or four successive seasons leading to the Peoples Elephant becoming one of the best sides in Nigeria.
“I have respect for a club like Enyimba for what they have achieved in Nigeria and in Africa. You cannot name at least 10 or 20 clubs in Africa without putting Enyimba and in Nigeria, if I am not mistaken, they are best because they have won the (CAF) Champions League, which no other club in Nigeria has won. But I believe that Kano Pillars can also do well on the continent and allow that to affect the team’s performance in the league next season,” he said.
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