Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr has revealed that it would be difficult for the home-based players to make a return to the team once those European players that missed the last two AFCON qualifiers are back into the team for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
Recall that two of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) players such as Adekunle Adeleke and Anayo Iwuala were drafted into the team as replacements for Kenneth Omeruo and Umar Sadiq after they withdraw from the encounter due to the Covid-19 travel ban imposed by some European countries.
Although Iwuala showed some glimpse of his skills against Benin and Lesotho to further highlight the importance of inviting the home-based players to the senior national team, however, Rohr in an interview with Punch stated that it would be tough for them to retain a spot in the team during the World Cup qualifiers.
“We had three home-based players in the team and they trained well and showed what they could do. But it’s going to be tough for them to get into the team when the players in Europe are fit and available.
“I cannot say who will come back. It’s not possible now with two months to our next game.
“It will be difficult for the home-based players to make the team when those who missed last games return.”
By Augustine Akhilomen
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COMMENTS
The truth is that Rohr has never believed in home based players irrespective of how talented they are . I remember that Finidi George was a home based players who showed class as a right winger when he played for the national team and from that journey , he was able to play for one of the best clubs in the planet, Ajax Amsterdam in which he won the league thrice , their FA cup, I believe the UEFA cup and the champions league.
Rohr is aware that there are foreign players who are so talented and are willing to give home based players a run for their money but would never pick them which is not cool . At all .
Look at this when players such as Saka , Tomori, Eze , Tammy Abraham are dissing Nigeria to play for England , why not look inwards.
Players like Uche Okechukwu Jay Jay okocha who were not born in any foreign country came and held the national team on their own. I’m not saying you shouldn’t invite foreign players but that doesn’t mean he should ignore what’s on ground at home either .
Can you compare the Nigerian league now with that of the 90s/2000s? Stop being a hypocrite.
You can’t compare the state of our league then to what it is now. You can hardly win away matches these days and we sometimes hear of shoddy decisions going the way of the home team. How can our league grow with such activities?
How many of your current league players can get a transfer straight from the league to the starting XI of Ajax Amsterdam like the Finidi and the 90s…..??
If you can factually and realistically name one, I will be the No1 person to lead a campaign for his invitation to the SE
Sunday mba was playing for Barcelona when he won AFCON for you in 2013 abi?
Sorry….point of correction.we won Afcon for Sunday MBA….not the other way round. He didn’t carry the ball from his own half to the other half all on his own. If he wasn’t there to finish off that move, whoever was there would have. Neither did he carry the team on his shoulders from the beginning of the tournament till the end. Even in that final match, he wasn’t the best performing player on the pitch. The fact that he faded into oblivion after Afcon says much about his quality. He couldn’t even make it to the world cup the following year. You so called hero who singlehandedly won a whole Afcon for Nigeria ended up in France 3rd division and didn’t go beyond Turkish 2nd division in his chequered career…. So much for you socalled local talents.
5 of our players were in the CAF team of that tournament….none was home based. Maybe CAF technical committee was blind and stupid.
You should be ashamed of yourself trying to prop up players who cannot even pass trials anymore in Sudanese league as the best that should make our national team.
It is even more shameful that no player has been successfully transferred from this same league where you claim talents abound to any of the top 10 leagues in Europe in the last 10 years. Yet you think they are better than and should be selected ahead of those playing week in week out in these leagues…..LMAO.
Talents really abound in your league…..LMAO
Talkative the fact that the league is on decline doesn’t mean there are no quality players. Always remember that how bad you think of home based players is also how bad you are as Naija based person as well. Get wisdom drey I am tired of advicing you.
Wen u had a coach that took the likes of enyeama to world cup in 2002. Wat happened to him wen the team returned. He was removed. Politics. Den they started all over. The same person wen to 84 nation cup . He was removed den . U see how black people kill themselves. Someone within the authority .anyway some people in power lak foresight. But Wat can the righteous do. The Spainish team have won the w cup . That was the team eagles defeated in 98. The best legs in Nigeria are not allowed to get to their prime. Any body with eagle eye can see that the new eagles can beat any team anyhere but will dey be allow. Far fa fà chicken
Chima is actually saying the truth here, that’s there’s no proper league doesn’t mean there are no talents at all.
Point of correction on “top ten league in the last 10 years”; v.Ozomwafor moved to Galatasary from our local league.
When I recall any I will update this thread pls
Cheers
Did they get into ajax without any influencer. Check it out or goggle it.rohr shud influence iwulla enzinwa and his new invite to club in France or Germany even if it lower league for the young players. Ezenwa shud by now be a beneficiary of his coming on board as coach of super eagles . That was Wat westhorf and bonferere did OK. Maybe rohr have done so for some guy anyway that we don’t know.
Point of correction, they are not your team, they are Nigeria National team.
And on the selection of Home Base boys, Iwuala has made Nigerians know that there are lot of talent here in Nigeria that can compete with the foreign based boys.
Nothing stop you from adding One or two local boys to every competition. It’s another way to promote the local boys to the world. Nigerian will will be happy for that and the local boys won’t forget you for your positive contribution to their football carrier.
Please stop this overhype of Iwuala…he showed potential against Benin but that was all…he’s final decision making was poor…I’m excited about his potential but let’s not get ahead of ourselves…..
“Nothing stop you from adding One or two local boys to every competition. It’s another way to promote the local boys to the world.”
‘Adding one or two local boys’? At the expense of who?
You want Rohr to weaken the team to please you and your ilks(hungry agents of ‘local boys’)
And your chukwueze that played poor in both games was given maximum playing time.Rohr never do una something
Jones what are you talking about ? Rohr is a coward not to get this home boys into the Super Eagles , his outburst here is quite childish and thoughtless,bef te why will he make such a nonsensical statement ?..the three major trophies by Nigeria was achieve or won majorly by the home boys , so Rohr should not be a coward , these home boys are far better than this glorified foreign breeds, what have they won?. He must give everyone equal chance to compete otherwise i will say he is getting a kick from them , at least Iwuala must make that squad if no body else .
To be honest if we pressure rohr to forcefully include home based on players into the team we will be shooting our foot by our self’ we will also be outrightly giving him the right to lose and make excuses like our late keshi did after france defeat'(my players where mostly average)
There should allow him invite the best legs even if the npfl players are good’ they are still below the European based players wish is the obvious! I don’t see teems like westbrom Bolton or reading etc expecting their players to be called for English national team and these teams are all better than eyimba or kanu pillers etc portsmouth beat our champions in Abuja 9 1 abi 7 0 it was a high margin from a middle table Premier league team even when our league was at is best.
The likes of netherlands croatia uroguay france and many others have better league than ours yet they still parade foreign based players in their selections we without people pressuring them’ it’s about quality of play not favouritism sentiment! We want to use national team to breed players that is not done anywhere’ if portsmouth doesn’t parade national team player and you expect Kano pillers to produce our national team player thesame you want to beat england and france to win the world cup: that is impossible
If our best players are in europe I don’t mind if they occupied the team. Should iwela bench olayinka or Sadiq? We saw how u23 clashed out of qualifications because of home based and average players
If keshi had kept on with home base team for the wcup qualifications believe me ethiopia would have beaten us home and away with their Barcelona touches but with the class of Mikel and emenike we knew the difference.
Last time i checked some of this top European countries you mentioned lost games to some small teams last week. Almighty Germany lost to North Macedonia, Netherlands lost to turkey. Soccer is now evolving, a lot of this small countries are getting difficult to defeat. Please what message is the PE teacher trying to pass, that we don’t have good enough players to compete with the foreign based, very funny. How do you unearth quality players when you miles away running your hotel business. Oga abeg park well
Some responses here are just funny.is it really about the Nigerian league or the talents we get in the league? Or are we going to easily conclude for instance that someone that went to Oxford University will automatically be better than a first class product of UI? Not until they are perhaps put to test. If goalkeeper okoye plays for Enyimba, would Rohr make him the first choice.what some of these home based players need is opportunity.We all saw what the home based guy did in the 2 games he featured in despite the few minutes he played. The fact remains that we still have good players in the league, it’s just for Rorh not to be lazy by begging every teenager in Europe to come play for the Eagles
But Iwuala’s performance in the two games he featured does not make a case for the home based players automatic inclusion to the super eagles.
Having said that,I am still in support of domestic players inclusion to the super eagles but not directly.Rather they should be scouted through their performances with the Chan eagles,but where none meets the standards required for invitation I do not see the point.
The national team is for the best players available and the best players happens be the ones that plays at the highest levels in Europe and we shouldn’t shortchange standards for mediocrity.
Why does Nigerians get bored of a system that works?They want a change all the time even when it’s not necessary and there decisions are horrendous.
I have read shocking posts from ex internationals and prospective coaches this are people you think should know better and you can imagine the state of the super eagles if you leave it in their care!
Our best players are outside Nigeria. Funny enough, the ones still in Nigeria are even looking for a chance to leave the country too. They see invitation to the SE as their best opportunity to leave Nigeria. In my opinion, the home based should be channelled to the CHAN/SE Team B.
There is no point buying big calculators and praying for miracle to happen, like praying for the other team to draw or loose before we can qualify for a competition when it’s possible to qualify with games to spare….. The formula is…. do the right thing and the right results will definitely follow you..
The gaffer is only doing what is right by setting standards, and if a player can’t meet those standard, you gat to forget about SE for good..
People clamoring for home base players are either enemy of progress or player egent.. This home base players have to prove themselves through CHAN. imagine they were unable to qualify let alone playing and winning the CHAN tournament..
how many of our home base players can make the CAF CL XI?
Once a coach make wrong decisions by selecting the wrong set of players while there are better ones waiting, he will surely pray for a miracle to happen and miracles don’t happen always..
It’s some people do enjoy stress and failure…
@Sirvictor.
This war u want to start now i hope u will be able to finish it???
This bitter truth u are unveiling now is not good at aaaaaal…. NOT ALL CAN SWALLOW THAT BITTER PILE CALLED “TRUTH”.
They’ll come out for u ooo… Don’t say i didn’t tell u oooo.
This pple hate when u tell them the truth… Just do like their politicians…. Promise them heaven and earth and end up doing none is what they are used to….
Sirvictor i repeat; this your truth is too bitter to swallow oooo.
They’ll start abusing, insulting and calling u all sort of names now just bcos u stand for the truth. But be valiant, resilience, dugged and courageous…. We’re strongly behind u….
:::SHALOM:::
@UBFE indeed the truth is bitter but notwithstanding we have to tell them the truth… no body will go for keke where there is Ferrari.. hahaha
The last CHAN team picked by the perpetual fumbler… Imama Amapakabo was a fraudulently crass bunch… Most of these local ciaches only like to pick players they have worked with even though they may not be the best… that team failed because Imama did a poor job of selecting those he knows but not necessarily the best in the league… Where was Iwuala and the invited centre back then? What did Imama touched that did not fail?
@Collin id.
With this your comment, i’m just okay for the day.
Thanks a lot.
Some pple thing we’re still in the 80s or 90s where the likes of FINIDI, KANU & co move from NPFL straight to AJAX starting XI.
For the past 10 years mention one NPFL Player that walk straight to any top 7 league club starting XI apart from our acedamy & U17 boys.
Okocha move from RANGERS OF ENUGU & went straight to FRANKFURT.
KANU from INWAYANWU NATIONALE( Now HEART LAND) & walk straight to AJAX starting XI.
All this was possible bcos of how functional our league was.
2nly, football in those days can’t be compared to now.
U see rules as per off-side, handball, fouls changing everyday.
Team tactics, formation being reformed by coaches.
Those days the fullbacks were task with defending only.
But in modern day soccer, they fullbacks must join attack at will.
DM was only known for rough/dirty job but now a ball-playing DM, CB, GK is mostly appreciated & needed by big clubs/managers.
Take all these things into consideration, come back again & blame Rohr for not inviting our homebase players.
That’s my take;
:::SHALOM:::
Name one player/winger in the original list that will be dropped for iwuala? And stop comparing our Nigerian league of the 80’s and 90’s with what we have now. The super eagle is not a developmental team. That is why we have the youth teams. The super eagle most boast of the best group of players that are Nigerians at any given time. Where was iwuala during the Olympic qualifiers, and U20 qualifiers? This is where the homebased players should prove themselves! We all remember Ahmed Musa a few years ago. If you prove yourself, put the coach in a tough spot to ignore you. But putting pressure on him to invite homebased players just because we want to market the league is ignorant and not fair to the deserving players that work hard to get to Europe.
While Rohr must not give up entirely on home-based players,the yardstick for selection remains qualitative and not a quota system and emotional considerations.
@JimmyBall my bro that’s the point same people clamoring for home base players are the ones making things difficult for the gaffer. I tell you, I’m very sure
Imama Amapakabo didn’t just selected those incompetent set of players alone… Those cabals also have a hand in it… I won’t call names but they know themselves… People doing things for their own selfish interest at the expense of the entire nation. isn’t that terrible?
The Gaffer has no business fixing the league…
with the inclusion of Yobo and under the guidance of the gaffer, the assistant coach can still select some of the best young players for CHAN team… not those grandfathers they use to select oo.. hahaha
I agree that home based players baring unforseen circumstances should not make the Super Eagles team for the world cup qualifications and competition proper. The reasons are clear, they are not exposed, technically they are not on the same level as the European players, they dont know what it feels like to play against and with the best of the best in the world. So what will they be adding to the team. Nothing. If you need exposure for the home based players, the NFF & or Lmc should work on making the league more appealing and competitive. So we can stand against top teams in Africa. The super eagles is not a tool one should use to advertise home grown talents, you can use u20, or u23 for that. Only The best players we have in the world should play for the Super Eagles.
Stephen Keshi did not only featured Sunday Uba in the Afcon winning team of 2013, he also brought in about 2 to 3 regular defenders from the local league who went on to play at the World Cup. GR does not want to do the developmental part of his assignment as the Nigerian National teams technical adviser. Westahof assisted local players with potentials to move abroad and turned them into pro ballers we all still talk about today. GR is a lazy coach he also ignores some of our very good pro players for paddy paddy invitations. Did he not say Musa was just a non playing captain recently, but it turned out to be a lie,Peter Olayinka plays the champions league and Europa league matches season after season yet our coach always ignore him . This guy have played against the biggest teams in Europe, Bacelona, inter, Chelsea etc and yet cannot make our National team? This is the guy that brought a certain Nwankwo from nowhere and took him to World Cup. We are paying for his white color and not his knowhow. A good coach is that man who knows how to spot Diamond in the rough playing either in a primary school field in Umuahia or Benin City.