Super Eagles Players and their State of Origin: Full List (October 2026)

Olufemi Aina chose Ikenne for the first football match he ever attended. In March 2024 he watched Remo Stars beat Bayelsa United under the floodlights there, in what he called “our ancestral home”. His son Ola was born in south London and had never been to the town. Ola Aina is still from Ikenne, Ogun State. That is what state of origin means in Nigeria: not where a player was born, but where his people come from.

Below are the two squads Eric Chelle named in September 2026, with every state we could confirm from a published source, and the birthplace where the family state has never been made public.

No guesswork.

Super Eagles players and their state of origin: the AFCON squad

This is the senior group Chelle picked for the AFCON 2027 qualifiers against Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau.

The extra players called up for Russia

Chelle also named a younger list for the friendly in Nizhny Novgorod on 6 October, which ended 3-3. Nine players from that group were already in the table above. These are the other fifteen.

Where the confirmed states come from

Each state in the tables rests on something on the record. Okoye was named an Enugu State ambassador by Governor Peter Mbah in June 2025 and said Enugu is his origin. Nwabali was welcomed home by Egbema Kingdom in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni after AFCON 2023. Ndidi's late father was buried in Umunede, Delta State, the family's hometown, in February 2026.

The forwards are clearer still.

Osimhen's father's family comes from Esan South East in Edo State, while his mother came from Delta. Daily Trust describes Moses Simon as Idoma from Benue State, born and raised in Kaduna. Akor Adams was born in Odoba, an Idoma community in Ogbadibo. Chukwueze built a house for his father in the family's hometown in Bende, Abia State.

Iheanacho was rewarded by the Imo State government in 2013 as one of four Golden Eaglets who are indigenes of the state. Igboke hails from Nsukka. Nwoko, born in London, has a father with roots in Umuahia South. Osayi-Samuel has been described in ThisDay as hailing from Edo, where he stages a youth tournament in Benin City.

Which states produce the most Super Eagles?

On these two lists, Edo, Benue, Abia and Enugu lead with two players each. Rivers, Delta, Ogun and Imo have one.

Lagos is the odd case.

It is the birthplace of Osimhen, Iwobi, Arokodare and Ilenikhena, and the city where Ndidi grew up and learned the game before Europe came calling, yet it is not the confirmed state of origin of a single player in either squad, which is exactly why birthplace and origin must never be confused on a list like this one.

Why some players stay unconfirmed

We did not guess from surnames. Ever. A surname can point to a region, but it cannot tell you a town or a state, and we have seen too many lists online that fill every cell that way.

Then there is the diaspora. Many of these players were born abroad. Lookman, Okonkwo, Fernandez and Ajayi grew up in London, and Bassey was born in Italy. Others, like the NPFL contingent, are too new to have been profiled at home. When a player, his family or a state government says where he comes from, we will add it. Not before. The same method applies to our list of Super Falcons players and their state of origin, and you can read more about Victor Osimhen's state of origin or our report on Russia 3-3 Nigeria.

This article was most recently revised and updated 58 seconds ago