Exclusive: Retaining our Topflight Status is a Priority, says Wilfred Ndidi

Leicester City and Nigerian midfielder Wifred Ndidi has described the outgoing calendar  2024 as an amazing year and looking forward to improving and achieving more in 2025 with the national team and also with premier league side Leicester City.

The midfielder is part of the Nigerian team who had just secured qualification to the next Africa Cup of Nations to be hosted by Morocco in 2025 despite losing their final home game in the qualification series to Rwanda.

Speaking exclusively to Sportsboom.com, Ndidi spoke about what he hopes to achieve with the Foxes by the end of the season insisting that the goal is to stay up.

“My drive as a Leicester City player is to make us stay up, that’s our priority. We want to win games hopefully going forward because we have been struggling as a team before this international break. All that struggle must end and come the end of the season; we just want to stay up.

Maresca to Cooper

Before the start of the season, the Foxes named Steve Cooper as its First Team manager and the former Nottingham Forest and Swansea City boss agreed a contract till 2027 while the Italian manager Enzo Maresca began his new role with Chelsea on a five-year contract.

When asked about the managerial switch following the poaching of Maresca by Chelsea after they secured promotion back to the top flight with a fantastic display all through the season in the Championship, the Leicester City midfielder mentioned that the current squad is still in transition in terms of approach to games by the managers.

“The result has still not been great, it’s like we are still transitioning from Maresca to Cooper and still trying to understand the new philosophy.”

“Last season, we made a good run in the championship with the style of play and after just one season with everyone thinking that we are beginning to perfectly understand that philosophy, he left and then came Cooper who has tried to also bring his own philosophy.”

Vardy is a different human

The 27-year-old midfielder who recently became the ninth Nigerian to reach 200 appearances in the Premier League was asked to talk about the iconic Foxes forward Jamie Vardy and concluded that the current Leicester City top scorer is a different being.

“Jamie is an amazing guy, for his age he doesn’t look it to be honest. Even in training, he’s so fast and I tell myself at times, he’s not stopping any time soon. I marvel at what he does, especially at training.”

“Off the pitch, his personality is a different class, he doesn’t care if he is abused or criticized, he’s just himself. I think I admire him a lot, his personality is great. He is just a different human,” said the player with the most assists for the Foxes so far this season.”