Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has named captain William Ekong, midfielders Alex Iwobi and Raphael Onyedika, and forwards Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen in his final list of 23 players for next month’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against Rwanda and South Africa.
Goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali also makes the final cut, alongside defenders Calvin Bassey, Olaoluwa Aina, and Bright Osayi-Samuel.
Midfielders Wilfred Ndidi, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and Frank Onyeka, and forwards Simon Moses, Samuel Chukwueze and Cyriel Dessers were also included by Chelle
Greece-based goalie Adeleye Adebayo returns to the group, while Werder Bremen defender will have the chance to make his competitive for the Super Eagles.
The Super Eagles confront the Amavubi of Rwanda in a Matchday 7 encounter at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo on Saturday, 6th September.
Read Also:Should Government Take Over Responsibilities Of Ex-International Players’ Upon Retirement? [Podcast]
Chelle’s side will fly to Bloemfontein to take on South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in a Matchday 8 fixture on Tuesday, 9th September.
FULL LIST
Goalkeepers: Stanley Nwabali (Chippa United, South Africa); Amas Obasogie (Singida Blackstars, Tanzania); Adeleye Adebayo (Volos FC, Greece)
Defenders: William Ekong (Al-Kholood, Saudi Arabia); Calvin Bassey (Fulham FC, England); Olaoluwa Aina (Nottingham Forest, England); Bright Osayi-Samuel (Birmingham City, England); Bruno Onyemaechi (Olympiakos, Greece); Chidozie Awaziem (Nantes FC, France); Felix Agu (Werder Bremen, Germany); Benjamin Fredericks (Dender FC, Belgium)
Midfielders: Alex Iwobi (Fulham FC, England); Frank Onyeka (Brentford FC, England); Wilfred Ndidi (Besiktas FC, Turkey); Fisayo Dele-Bashiru (SS Lazio, Italy); Raphael Onyedika (Club Brugge, Belgium); Christantus Uche (Getafe CF, Spain)
Forwards: Ademola Lookman (Atalanta BC, Italy); Samuel Chukwueze (AC Milan, Italy); Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray FC, Turkey); Simon Moses (Paris FC, France); Cyriel Dessers (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland); Tolu Arokodare (KRC Genk, Belgium)
By Adeboye Amosu
28 Comments
No Esther Okoronkwo on the final list??? This is fraud!!!
This is fight to finish o.
Good list.
Thanks God that Eric Chelle have yielded to the advice given to him in this forum, by not listen to dictatorship in the area of selecting players base on EGO, SENIORITY , USELESS EXPERIENCE (without fitness), SENTIMENT or QUOTA SYSTEM.
Now that final 23-man list has been released, the MOST IMPORTANT THING for CHELLE to succeed in this crucial matches is to know the right players to use at right time. HE MUST NOT USE PLAYERS OUT OF POSITION. Just like the way he used them in last qualifier matches.
** Eric Chelle should use players in right position. He should NOT GAMBLE.
And for Eric Chelle to actually know which best position suit/good for each players, he should go & understudy the last ten consecutive matches each players have played in super eagle.
### FOR INSTANCE: ##
** A very good example is ADEMOLA-LOOKMAN VERSUS MOSES SIMON
Lookman is very fantastic & Superb while operating from left wing of the midfield.
Infact all the best performance of Ademola lookman the whole world know today is when he operate from the left wing of the midfield.
Coach Eric Chelle should forget about useless experience/seniority. And not to be thinking that Moses Simon senior Lookman or have experience in national team.
Moses Simon can play as substitute when the match won.
** Another good example is for Eric Chelle to FORGET ABOUT USELESS EXPERIENCE.
Now that Super eagles has a lot of STRONG DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS that are consistent like: ONYEKA, ONYEDIKA, DELE-BASIRU, UCHE-CHRISANTUS. He should not mind to bench NDIDI because when NDIDI was not available for AFCON2023, NOBODY MISS HIM. ONYEKA performed credibly well more than people’s expectation.
** LASTLY, another good example is STRIKING POSITION.
Apart from OSIMHEN, the best Nigeria striker in terms of quality & composure is CYRIEL DESSERS. The last eight matches CYRIEL -DESSERS played in super eagle, performed credibly well coupled together with goalscoring & assist, compare to SADIQ-UMAR, BONIFACE that played more than eighteen matches without a single goal or assist
GOOD LIST !!!
WORLD CUP TICKET IS ON THE WAY !!!
Very Good List. Just hope Stanley Nwabali and Dessers is fit.
DROPPED
Victor Boniface
Sadiq Umar
Nathan Tella
Terem Moffi
Adams Akor
Igoh Ogbu
Alhassan Yusuf Abdullahi
Ebenezer Harcourt
A coach who knows what he’s doing won’t drop a tested and trusted Igho Ogbu for Benjamin Fredericks
I can understand Tella…he needs time to blend and it’s Africa football (heat, altitude, bone crushing etc)
Igho Ogbi is not ready. The list is good.
Dropping Igoh Ogbu who shone at the unity cup for chidozie awanzim who have never played for Chelle is not fair to me.
This is a perfect list..let’s go and qualify for the worldcup
Nice one by Eric Chelle
We finally have a very good list in Nigeria
What a list full of ballers and no sentiment, even the awaziem that would have been an issue is playing.
We finally have a good left back in felix agu, ball playing defender in Benjamin Fredericks, a rugged attack minded midfielder in Uceh Chrisantus and I pray dessers should be match fit, the team looks very good.
I would advise chukwueze to be the player with the free role function.
The coach should allow Aina play his right back now that agu is there. Onyedika should start in uyo, and iwobi should play the number 7 role he plays at Fulham now that uche and chukwueze can play from the center.
Thank you Obas
From this good list, we can start
Nwabali in goal
Aina as right back
Agu as left back
Calvin bassey as left CB
Benjamin Frederick as right CB
Frank onyeka as DM to do the marking and dirty work
Onyedika as CM for coordination
Chukwueze as free role in the Number 10
Iwobi as the winger that can invert to midfield as he does in Fulham
Uche as the support to Osimhen
Osimhen as the striker
Chukwueze can go to the wing at anytime
Uche chrisantus can do the dirty work when need be in the midfield and also strike and assist.
Lookman would be sub in place of iwobi in case he gets tired as always because of his mindset now due to the transfer saga
Dessers replaces chukwueze while chrisantus play the No 10.
Ekong would have started but he is prone to error and can’t distribute like Frederick but ekong can start if he is sharp in training because we need to beat the Rwandan team like 3 nil and the first half is important.
I don’t have a problem with this list but I would be very glad if a player like Harcourt is allowed in Camp to start gaining vital experience from his senior colleagues. Let us learn to integrate youngsters in Nigeria like it’s done in Spain, and this idea has only proven positive for their football.
Another point to note is I prefer Bassey as LB than CB, due to his bulldozing style of play that makes him a suspect at CB but proves to be a weapon at LB when joining attack. He did very well at LB when he was at Rangers before switching to CB at Fulham. Our CB is the weak link in the team for some of this reasons.
Finally Wilfred Ndidi must work on his final ball such as poor shooting and average vision. If the coach must control matches Ndidi and co in the middle must use the ball effectively from passing to shooting when opportunity to do either arises. Above all the teams General ball distribution and usage must be well articulated. Anywhere belle face football and too much backward passes must be averted if we must dominate and create attacking chances henceforth. Saying this because too much backwards passes will only lead to conceding goals. If we can do the basics well I trust our strikers to do the finishing because this is the main strength of Nigeria.
To add to my input Igbo Ogbu should be in this list because he is presently our best CB. @moderator do we have a problem because there has to be something wrong with you if you hide a decent comment but publish nuisance like monkey post and Yabaoh. It’s high time they flush you out of CS before you damage the reputation of the sports body in Nigeria.
Lmao I am the life of this forum…so csn can’t do without me..deal with it bro… hahahaha
The thing no tire u @ Chima? I stopped dropping comment here due to this rubbish, u waste ur time to compose and sent a message, you won’t see it and u wonder what’s going on, yet some meaningless comment will pop up instantly.
Nothing to add, this a statement list and we can’t ask for more, good luck guys. But can NFF plead with Gala to not use VO this weekend? Make that boy no carry any injury this time oooo.
U mumu ehn @femi where is that done that NFF should beg gala not use vo because of mere Rwanda n south Africa wcq…does it sound professional to u..or even does it make sense? U wey dey talk about making meaning post in this forum… Club that is paying them very well enough should not use them because of common Rwanda lmao is it not suppose to be the other way? That’s for gala to beg NFF not to stress their players so they don’t return injured….
Infact for a soft ass league like turkey do they get injured like that… lmao I mean osimhen can just finish playing a match then fly to naija that same day and play the Rwanda or South Africa game the next day scoring a hat trick…. hahahahaha is that easy bro…..
I don’t there is anyone here who didn’t merit his inclusion. No Boniboni, no saudiq, no tela.
I don’t who is there that is not suppose to be there, good selection in mine own opinion.
A near perfect team list the best i have seen for years. Something in me tells me we are going to win both games and improve our chances of going to world cup. So far that guy Tau is not in south africa team list nothing to worry about. Its going to be a long night for them. Guys lets go and conquer
Good list with very fit and active players!
Great list.
Only player that I believe should have been there is Igho Ogbu. Except he is injured, I believe Igho Ogbu would add more value in the central defence than Anwaziem. Also, since we have Felix Agu in left back, and Bassey who can also play there, it would have been more beneficial to take Igho Ogbu and drop Bruno Onyemachi who hasn’t been that convincing in his past few outings.
Also agree with @Chima about having Harcourt in camp even if he’s not named in the Matchday squads.
Nathan Tella’s case must have been a tough call, but I believe with more consistent performance in his club, he will definitely become a key Super Eagles player in the new future.
Good list, but is Benjamin Frederick better than Igho Ogbu in the defence?
For the first time in a long time, I can see a good list that was not influenced or based on a coach trying to sell a player to foreign clubs.
This is good Chelle. Thank you for this.
Though I would have preferred ogbu to be in here. But I understand what Chelle wants to do with Fredericks. Fredericks is good too. But Fredericks should have waited for his time.
We will need ogbu. I don’t like the combination of ekong and bassey at center especially when we are playing 4 at the back.
Ekong is not as Sharp as he should be . He has made lots of mistakes in defence when we play two in the center of defence. He caused us the three points in the last match.
Bassey is too aggressive and always make mistakes too when we play four in defence.
The only time the two always deliver is when we play 343 or 352.
The central defence is my fear. I believe this may just be the one that will work against us.
Oh I hope chukwueze is given that free role again and I hope he excel again like he did at the unity cup. If he does we have struck gold in the middle. He was very good at the unity cup.
Lookman should sit for uche. I want to see uche deal with the opposition. That boy is good.
Please onyeka must play in that middle o. It’s important. He is a fighter and a warrior in the middle..We need that because we must always start ndidi.. He needs to cover up for ndidi so that ndidi can push more upfront.
Last last oshimen must not get injured o. We are at this stage because of he missed some matches. That boy is like two or three on the pitch. Let us begin to pray
Igor ogbu is still recovering from injury.
Tella and Ogbu showed up in the last match they played for the team. Based on performance in recent Eagles and club matches, Ogbu should be among the top 3 (Aina, Bassey, and Ogbu). When last did Ekong, Felix, Bright play for their clubsides ? Awaziem has failed to deliver in important matches.
Tella is playing well at his club and did pretty well in his last match for SE.. Why drop Tella when you could have removed a defender.
Ogbu and Tella deserve to be in the team.
What’s the essence of inviting too many defender
Nigeria will still not go to the World cup, you have almost same set of players that couldn’t beat Zimbabwe. Someone is praising claiming their was no influence, then what’s lookman doing on the list. players that hasn’t trained for weeks, wasn’t even included in Atalanta’s first game of the season. Make una dey deceive una selves