Former Nigerian international Friday Ekpo has advised Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle not to exclude players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) from the list of players that will be invited for the 2026 Unity Cup.
Nigeria will compete in the 2026 Unity Cup in London from May 26–30, 2026, at The Valley, home of Charlton Athletic FC.
As defending champions, Nigeria will face Jamaica, Zimbabwe, and India in this four-nation tournament celebrating Afrocentric and global diaspora communities.
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In a chat with Completesports.com, Ekpo stated that opportunities should be given to the NPFL players to prove their worth in the Super Eagles.
“The Unity Cup should be an opportunity for the Super Eagles handler to pick a few of the NPFL players who he thinks are capable of contributing positively to the senior national team.
“I have nothing against inviting foreign players to the team, but neglecting players in the domestic league should not be encouraged because we still have quality players who can be of great value to the team.”
4 Comments
Dem don start again!
World cup 2030 failure loading.
Invite only the best, home based or foreign based. Insisting on home based by fire by force even when the foreign based are better is courting disaster! Let the coach select his squad.
With this set of GEN-Z players, Nigerian should forget about homebase players entering into super eagle team dirty.
Corruption in NFF, NFL, NSC have kill their confident, moral, belief in making it directly into super eagle team.
**NO SPONSOR , No proper planning for league development in the country.
Instead, they are LOOTING MONEY UP & DOWN.
CORRECTION
With this set of GEN-Z players, Nigerian should forget about homebase players entering into super eagle team directly..
Corruption in NFF, NFL, NSC have kill their confident, moral, belief in making it directly into super eagle team.
**NO SPONSOR , No proper planning for league development in the country.
Instead, our football management are busy LOOTING MONEY UP & DOWN.
Homebase team that cannot qualify for common age grade (U-17, U-20, U-23) AFCON, talkless of qualify for world cup.
NIGERIA FOOTBALL IS DIEING.
LET SOMEONE RESCUE.
NO MORE UGBADE, KANU, BABAYARO, ORUMA, ADEPOJU, AGHAHOWA, YOBO, MIKEL, OBASI, TAYE-TAIWO NSOFOR, OSHIMEN, CHUKWUEZE. FROM AGE-GRADE FOOTBALL. AGAIN
SHAME ON FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT.
Those one that are picked last year (like Papa-idris, Soliu-Ismaila), can anyone boast of their future performance.. Most of them have nothing to write home about.
**BENJAMIN FREDRICK that from youth team of Brentford then (not playing English premier or championship) IS FAR FAR BETTER THAN those claimed that they are playing Nigeria Premier League.
Which means that Youth teams in Europe is FAR FAR BETTER THAN so- called Nigeria Premier League.
WHAT A SHAME to all Nigeria Football management.