Enugu Rangers Focuses On CAF Champions League

Fresh from a successful campaign in the 2025/26 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), which they won for a record-breaking ninth time, Enugu Rangers are now focused on doing better in the CAF Champions League than they did two years ago.

The team defeated Ikorodu City 2-1 in Lagos on Sunday to beat their closest rivals, Rivers United, to the crown by just one point.

Now done with the league campaign, Rangers, who are set to meet old foes, Rivers United, in the President’s Federation Cup round of 32 in Uyo on June 1, believe they have enough experience now to navigate the dangerous waters of the CAF Champions League.

Following the league win, an elated chairman of the club, Amobi Ezeaku, told The Guardian that the plan has always been to take Rangers back to the summit of African football.

He said: “This is a new era for our club after we announced our strategic plan in August 2023, when Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mba asked that I come back to become the general manager after my FIFA masters. We are on a different trajectory.

“We just want to continue to develop our strategic plan, sporting excellence, community social impact, and commercial development.

“We are majorly playing with young players, and we are consistent in the sense that Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu continues to stay with us to maintain that sustainable aspect of football.

“The win in 2024 catalysed into our minds that we can always win. So two trophies in three seasons means mentally the players will think, okay, we can go again, again and again, and that is how big institutions in football are built.”

Team captain, Chidiebere Nwobodo, echoes his manager’s sentiments, adding that the challenge is now to fortify the team for the CAF Champions League.

“We showed that we are the best team in Nigeria and deserve to win. Rangers are not a small team. Everybody, especially the easterners, looks up to us, and our duty is to continue to do well to please them.

“The Champions League is on another level, and we are going to prepare well for it. We will do our best to make Nigerians proud.”

On equaling Enyimba’s record of nine league titles, Nwobodo said that it was their mission from the onset. “Now that we have achieved it, we want to go further by making a mark on the continent.”