Confirmation that Dender EH of Belgium defender, Benjamin Fredrick will be absent at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has caused an upset to the analyses of players who are tipped to excel at the impending championship in Morocco.
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Sports247 reports that Fredrick, who is on loan at Dender from Brentford of England, had all along been tipped to create waves at Maroc 2025, and he was listed among an array of young players to watch out for.
This was based mainly on the fact that the dreadlocks-wearing youngster has been able to settle firmly as a regular in the Super Eagles within a short space of time, but his absence has now rubbished many forecasts.
The 20-year-old lad’s breakthrough came through an unexpected opening that dropped his way due to the absences of some players invited for the Eagles’ outing at the 2025 Unity Cup in London.
What was initially planned as a mere cursory visit by Fredrick to the Eagles’ camp in The Hive turned into a golden opportunity to get a call-up into the squad and a dream debut soon followed.
That dream debut quickly evolved into three key games for the Eagles and a surprise first team surge that somehow sent skipper of the side, William Troost-Ekong to the bench (and ultimately into retirement).
He was then tipped to shine at AFCON 2025, but the reverse has come against those great expectations of a great display from him on the continental stage.
Many featurised scripts and previews of stars to shine at the competition had already emerged, with high ratings for the fast-rising defender, who was born in Kaduna but got his football breakthrough at ABS FC of Ilorin.
One of such expectant previews came from vastly popular portal, One Football, which celebrated the emergence of Fredrick, who moved to Brentford in 2023 from Nasarawa United of Lafia, and rated him among the top-12 youngsters to watch out for at AFCON 2025.
The portal’s words for Fredrick are: “The Dender defender, owned by Brentford, has amazed everyone in Nigeria with the speed at which he secured a starting spot in a highly competitive national team.
“Capable of playing as either a right-back or central defender, he arrived just as captain William Troost-Ekong decided to retire.”
Sadly, Fredrick will not be there to grace the continental soccer showpiece, ahead of which Eagles’ coach, Eric Chelle has named five uncapped rookies in his squad of 28 players.
