{"id":15712,"date":"2013-01-31T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2013\/01\/emenike-i-am-happy-playing-for-nigeria-instead-of-turkey\/"},"modified":"2013-01-31T23:45:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T23:45:00","slug":"emenike-i-am-happy-playing-for-nigeria-instead-of-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/01\/31\/emenike-i-am-happy-playing-for-nigeria-instead-of-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Emenike: I Am Happy Playing for Nigeria Instead of Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"010213N.-Emmanuel-Emenike.jpg<\/div>\n
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Spartak Moscow forward, Emmanuel Emenike<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spartak Moscow forward, Emmanuel Emenike, has admitted making the wise decision of playing for Nigeria instead of Turkey.<\/p>\n

Emenike, who scored Nigeria\u2019s first two goals of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament here in South Africa against Burkina Faso and Zambia, said in Rustenburg Thursday, that playing in his first AFCON and scoring two vital goals to help Nigeria reach the quarter final stage was really exciting to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really great playing for Nigeria here at the AFCON 2013. Each time I am called home and wear the green jersey, I feel some form of excitement and contentment in me. I feel happy in the midst of my friends in the team and ever ready to give off my best. I think I took the wise decision of playing for Nigeria instead of Turkey that also wanted me in their national team,\u201d revealed the former Fenerbahce of Turkey player.<\/p>\n

He however gave the credit of choosing to play for Nigeria to Eagles\u2019 captain, Joseph Yobo, who convinced him on the need to serve one\u2019s fatherland.<\/p>\n

\u201cYobo prevailed on me to forget whatever may have happened in the past and pick Nigeria instead of Turkey that was also putting pressure on me to wear their red colours. The second person to also give credit is former Eagles Head Coach, Samson Siasia, who came to see me a couple of times in Turkey and also talked to me about the Nigerian choice,\u201d he further hinted.<\/p>\n

On the quarter final match against Cote d\u2019Ivoire, Emenike promised to do his best as usual for Nigeria to grab the semi-final ticket at stake.<\/p>\n

He restated his earlier stance that the Elephants can never scare him after playing against a great team like Barcelona in the UEFA Champions\u2019 League.<\/p>\n

\u201cCote d\u2019Ivoire can never scare me. I have played big team like Barcelona in the Champions League and proved my worth. So why should I be afraid of playing the Elephants ever if they parade some of the best players in the continent. Don\u2019t also forget that we are also a force in African football,\u201d boasts the power playing forward who is expected to spearhead Nigeria\u2019s assault against the title favourites on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spartak Moscow forward, Emmanuel Emenike Spartak Moscow forward, Emmanuel Emenike, has admitted making the wise decision of playing for Nigeria instead of Turkey. Emenike, who scored Nigeria\u2019s first two goals of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament here in South Africa against Burkina Faso and Zambia, said in Rustenburg Thursday, that playing in his first AFCON and scoring two vital goals to help Nigeria reach the quarter final stage was really exciting to him. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}