Flying Eagles head coach Paul Aigbogun has named Success Makanjuola, Mike Zaruma, Detan Ogundare in his 18-man squad for the All-Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco, reports Completesports.com.
Makanjuola and Ogundare were part of the squad to the 2019 FIFAU-20 World Cup in Poland in May, while Plateau United Zaruma made the team to the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Niger earlier in the year.
Aigbogun also included regulars; Rabiu Zulkifilu Mohammed, , Emeka Chinonso and Peter Eletu in the squad.
Nigeria will face hosts Morocco, South Africa and Burkina Faso in Group A.
The 12th All-Africa Games will run from August 19th to 31st in Rabat, Morocco.
Aigbogun’s Flying Eagles Squad For 12 All-Africa Games:
Goalkeepers: Detan Ogundare (Kogi United), Matthew Yakubu (Clique Sports)
Defenders: Rabiu Mohammed (Plateau United), Mike Zaruma (Plateau United), Habibu Sadiq Yakubu (Rarara FC), Victor Arikpo Eteng (Sidos FC), Sanusi Abdulmutallif (Katsina United)
Midfielders: Peter Eletu (Prince Kazeem FC), Adewale Oladoye (Water FC), Liameed Quadri (36 Lion), Samuel Nnoshiri (Heartland), Abubakar Ibrahim (Plateau United)
Forwards: Emeka Chinonso (Brookhouse), Success Makanjuola (Water FC), Collins Sor (36 Lion), Saeed Jibril (Plateau United), Ahmad Ghali (MFM), Adesina Gata (Wikki Tourists)
By Adeboye Amosu
45 Comments
One of the standout performers in the world cup squad Aniekeme Okon of Awka united left out. Also Maxwell Effiom of Enyimba. lets assume that the foreign players Ozornwafor, Utin, Oforboh, Dele-Bashiru and Ogbu are not available. One would have thought that the best performers from the world cup would deserve a call up
I’m surprised also that Aniekeme Okon and Maxwell Effiom are not in this team. The only reasonable explanation would be that they’re out on “foreign trials” as has become the norm for some of our local players after featuring in major youth tournaments. Other than that or fitness issues, it would be a major misnomer not to have those two guys in this squad. But with the way things tend to run with the Nigeria U-20 team during the past two years, I can only keep my fingers crossed. With this team, the less said, the better.
HABA! SO THIS MAN IS STILL IN CHARGE!!??? NA WA O!
I have made enough enemies for speaking out against Coach Rohr. Let me keep quiet before they begin to think I just love to complain.
NFF, what else can we say? You guys seem to love mediocrity. I don talk my own finis.
Lol….I don’t know about the other Rohr supporters, but me I dey solidly behind you on this one. Can’t believe this guy is still there. What the heck? SAMBISA all over again!!!
Exactly what I thought when I saw the article, what is going on here for crying out loud? Is it we dont have any formidable Coach or what? This is a coach that camped a team for month and still play like they only start playing together in a week still they leave him on the bench? wow !
Exactly what I thought when I saw the article, what is going on here for crying out loud? Is it we dont have any formidable Coach or what? This is a coach that camped a team for month and still play like they only start playing together in a week still they left him on the bench? wow !
How on earth is Aigbogun still a coach of any of our national teams na?
I’m not expecting much from this team and nothing from the Coach,cos they almost gave me a heart attack at the world cup
What is Paul Aigbogun still doing anywhere near our national team again plz! What is NFF up to?
This man understands nothing about coaching. I will save myself the pain of trying to watch his team Play.
Nff should send this man to the appropriate Dept which is d scout team n not coach he has the wherewithal to convince our foreign born players to pledge there allegiance to 9ja I guess that’s d only thing keeping him on nff pay role
I don’t think this tournament is important to the Nff.
Just four defenders three of the four are full backs this ridiculous!
I wonder what type of team is this,talents abound in Nigeria I wonder why the coach is rigmarroling around one corner instead of going round the country and fish out talents, any way I believe this will be his last attempt.
Surprised Aigbogun is still in charge after 2 calamitous showings in as many tournaments. What we’re his targets in the last U20 Afcon & World Cup, and did he meet them? So, why retain him, Mr. Pinnick & Olawunmi? Someone returned poor results in 2 exams, you still handed him a 3rd exam to write for you? Well, good luck. But with Aigbogun, not interested. Thanks.
Nigeria should pull out of the men’s soccer event.Aigbogun’s continuous presence is so disheartening. Haha.even if we feel continuity is the best way forward,definitely not with this physical education teacher.its like telling a bicycle repairer to fix an aeroplane. The guy truly has no business managing a modest naija clubside let alone the Olympic eagles. From sole to crown he is a misfit. He has already failed before writing the exam. Clueless coach
Let’s leave this man alone.. He was one of the best coaches in Nigeria prior to getting the job. It’s the Nigerian factor that affected him. God fatherisn, agents forcing their players into the team.. Thats why I love foreign coaches they mostly don’t tolerate all this nonsense most black men fall into.. If he is wise he should learn and play strictly on merit.
Your comment shows that you don’t watch Nigerian premier league. Coach Aigbogun in Enyimba was a disaster. Even after week 20,Enyimba players could not play as a team, could not even string three or four passes together. All through his stay, the fans kept protesting until he left. I kept wondering how he led Warri Wolves to second place behind Enyimba the previous season. Following his appointment as coach of the Flying Eagles, many of us Enyimba fans wept for the team and surely all characteristics of his team showed in flying eagles.
Simply put, the guy no be coach abeg!
A coach who discovered etebo from the scratch is a good coach. Many of us still sing the praises of the academy that discovered Ahmed musa, Samuel Kalu and others and label them the best in Nigeria.
Don’t forget during his eyinba days he was combining Nigeria duty with club football and still qualified them for caf.
The problem is the Nigeria factor as I pointed out before.
Take a good look at his present list you would discover that many of his dropped players are now back to the team like Mike zaruma and yabuku the goalkeeper and some others like liamid.. Why did he drop them initially going for the world cup??.. Pressure from higher bodies
No no no, this man should be far from any national team.
Why does the black man always reward failyres and expect to succed?
Is he one of the untouchable Fulanus too?
What the hell is wrong with the NFF?
This us the same sit-tight mentality of the political class, the same reason we are still talking about Rhor, even when he has nothing more to offer.
When will we ever learn to make decisions without emotion?
Lolllllll this man again, common guys check out the names of the players, this insult on Nigerians are just too much, Fulanis dominating under 21 wonders shall never end. sambisa fc reloading
The fact that Aigbogun is still in charge only fortifies that submission that he was only doing the bidding of NFF top dogs and godfathers with his player selections.
This is what we have not been seeing in the SE for almost 3 years now that has made them start a media campaign of bias against him.
One charlatan even wrote one crap of a piece about 3 things that has become common with Rohr’s 3 year reign…..I read the piece and just passed by as it wasn’t worthy of a comment from me. I wondered how the writer passed through school of journalism.
Guaranteed… under Rohr, no questionable call ups.
Guaranteed….. under Rohr, our players now are busy in every transfer window, be it January or August, because they know if you dont play, you don’t play
Guaranteed…..under Rohr in 10 matches, we will win close to 7, draw 2 and probably lose 1 (pls don’t argue with me, argue with the stats on ground)
Guaranteed….. under Rohr, the team never parks the bus, we are always on the front foot (so I wonder where some blind people got the idea we play defensive football)
Guaranteed….. under Rohr…the SE must rise 10 places on the FIFA rankings every year.
Guaranteed…. under Rohr you will always see an enterprising team with exciting wing play on show.
I can go on and on….! The dog they have given a bad name to kill has refused to die. They said we have the ‘best talents’ in Africa yet in this transfer window where another African was signed for £70m, and another being primed for an £80m move, the highest we’ve heard for any Nigerian player is £16m. No Nigerian player has won the AFOTY for the past 19 years while none has made the top 3 in the last 6 years or more……yet they claim we have ‘the most talents’ in Africa …LMAO and as a result we should win afcon after not qualifying for 3 out of 4 editions….Lolz.
Mama albino dey device insef, dem ask am madam how your pikin Na, she say oyinbo dey o.
Lol, this man no go kill person with laugh oo.
The problem with player valuations? mainly down to agents and representation (if the player is already in Europe) and down to the poor state of our local football organization and cut throat agents if they are going from the Nigerian league abroad.
The fact that we have not seen a full season of football since 2017 means our players whilst talented, are unprepared for a life of professional football abroad. Players are going to Europe either directly from academies having never played professional football or after playing in a league and no competitive football for months. a case in point is Junior Lokosa, top scorer in NPFL 2017 going from country to country in Europe for trials and rejected time and again, not because he is not talented, but because after 5 months of inactivity, he was not as fit as other 9maybe less talented players) who were ready to just slot into their squad. Lokosa ended up in Tunisia and still required months of work before he was ready to join the first team of a Tunisian club. Another example is players from academies going first to Slovakia, then to Belgium before hitting “big contracts”. Examples are Kalu, Ndidi, Moses Simon, all taking this route Nigeria Academy-Slovakia-Belgium-Top 5 league.
Our players are simply not prepared for a life of professional football, although talented, still need to be taught discipline, tactical awareness, timekeeping, etc.
The last transfer window saw us with mostly sub $10m transfers, this season sees us crossing to $15m transfers of players who are established in European football, but the average player leaving the NPFL does so for less than $400k. This is because they are not ” the finished product”. Another example is S Odey $350k to Zurich from MFM, after two (or one and a half seasons) now commanding $millions after work is put in to polish him, Ozornwafor leaving Enyimba for a similar amount and I don’t expect him to break into the first team of Galatasaray for month, until he is brought upto speed.
One who has bucked the trend is Samuel Chukwueze from Diamond academy to Villareal, again sent to their second team to polish up, but took less than half a season to get upto speed. He is still seen as requiring polishing, but you get the drift.
Now harry Maguire £80m? he is seen as grossly over priced, but when you look at how much has been invested in his training, you cannot fault the club for demanding a premium. if one looks at Omeruo, being priced at £4.5m to £7m, the difference is clear that our players are under priced and we can only point fingers at the work our Nigerian agents are doing. I’m not saying he should be marketed at £80m, but he is definitely worth £10 to £15m at the very least (two AFCON plus 2 world cups) and the most dependable of our defenders.
Still on agents and player management, I have a feeling that they are almost strictly about the money, highest bidder, rather than looking for a club that develops players, with a strong youth development culture or that suits the playing style of their client. This is why I think the likes of the Nwakali brothers, Awoniyi, Osimhen, Yahaya Musa have all failed to shine consistently since.
Lemme stop my epistle here
@dr Drey
Majority of the time,I do share some of your sentiments ; right now, I share your view on Aigbogun, he is totally inept and should be far from any national team.
But I disagree with you on some of your views; especially as it concerns Rohr and the talent Nigeria has.
now permit me to point out some holes in your points;
1. Guaranteed under Rohr the team never parks the bus,yes; but to say we are always on the front foot is totally false. I believe Rohr has always been pragmatic with his approach, not giving much away,sit back and wait on the counter; although not really defensive, but not a style that put you on the ‘front foot’.
Suffice to say, there are games we have played more attacking football but 70percent of the time, under Rohr, we have always shielded possession to the opposite side, calm ,sit back and wait to punish the opposition on a counter.
And we don’t park the bus ,not because Rohr don’t want to,or didn’t try to( heck ,he played conservative football most of the time with two people sitting infront of the back four,and sometimes ,a 3-5-2),but our players isn’t built for that.it is well known,that Nigeria players are mostly attack minded and our defensive abilities is not really water tight;this present set of players are no exception .
2. I do understand your point on the slow movement of Nigeria players this transfer window; yes,we dont command a big fee like other Africa Nation players just did; but does that mean we lack talent or they have better talent than Nigeria?! I beg to differ.
Sometimes in football,and in life generally, money doesn’t always tell the full story.
Maguire is just been priced for 80million pounds, and the whole world knows he isn’t really worth that evaluation, but that is what the market is right now,over bloated.
Besides, we all know the way the world sees Nigeria these days; you can’t take away geopolitics from football;
Yet again, life is all about time and chance; because we don’t have boys breaking transfer window records this season doesn’t mean we wouldn’t and haven’t .. just some two seasons back,Leicester paid good money to get Musa. Then there was no Keita, Gueye Or Pepe..that was Musa’s time .
Yes we haven’t won the AFOTY for some years now; but does that mean we never had quality good enough to win it; Okocha,was arguably cheated out,twice. Mikel, Moses, in recent times, have all made top three. After all,if you have one country,always having nominees up there with the best,shows there is a pool of talents from that country.
If we can’t appreciate what we have, what would Ghana say or Cameroon ,who has only Eto o to thank.after him what next!
Or are you telling me that an individual award tells the quality of a whole country?!
Then maybe George weah’s Liberia could have won the Afcon while he was AFOTY.
Lastly, you don’t have to qualify for every edition of a tournament to win it. What is the use of qualifying if you are going to make up the numbers? A country like Nigeria should always think of winning the Afcon, yes, I dare say, we have build ourselves to that level to yearn for it, it doesn’t matter if missed some editions; when we get there , we should aim to win it!
After all Denmark in 92 never even qualified for the Euros, they came in through the back door ans yet they won the cup.
Same for Greece who won the Euros after missing some editions.
France never went to US 94 but they won the next World Cup in 98.
So missing an edition doesn’t mean you can’t win the next one.
Nigeria should always aim high,especially as it concerns Africa.if we don’t. Who should?
You have your points.
These are just mine.
When Men Talk we take notes & Listen @ Dr.Dre & Mr.Hush_
“Mawn them”!!!
Proper analysing and very proper reply from Dr Drey and Mr Hush. That is how a forum should be. Present facts to counter if you have one. Thanks for this morning doze from you both. I Love you both.
*Proper analysis*
Mr. Hush! Because of this piece I have just read from you, I will never argue with anyone in this forum again. I will leave it to men like you and deo to speak when it is necessary.
For once, someone has replied with truth, not sentiments.
THANKS, THANKS AND THANKS.
@ bomboy
I appreciate your compliment.
But please keep the argument coming oo,lol..
Albeit, constructive,it is what keeps the forum going and we sharing; learning from each other…
Thanks again
@mr hush, I asked you to send me your number but you ignored me, I want to learn something from you sir.
Forgive me @ Tancosport;
Totally skipped my mind.
You can always reach me through my work email.
[email protected]
@ Bomboy,agreed Drey and Hush are fantastically knowledgeable people in the game and do not forget Deo and Aphylidegreat this are phenomenal individuals whose posts are sweet to read but we all have to keep on the arguments as we differ that’s the fun and that’s the school and that makes the forum irresistible.
thank you.
So this shameless man is still in charge? Chai! Another disaster and belly turning performance await us at the tourney. What an anti tribalistic list. Knowing fully well that good players in Nigeria come from the south east and south south,how come the list is made up players from the north??? Trying to introduce buhari’s wicked anti south agenda to our cadet football??? This country is just a joke! Now I see the true reason why most people want Rohr’s head. They’ve fruitlessly tried to impose their wicked agenda on him bcos he’s a foreigner reasonably devoid of corruption. Pitiful…
If he is a shameless man, what are you?
I am laughing in swahili (Ka Ka Ka Ka)
Stop this nonsense… There are talents in all regions… Of there is any state producing the most quality footballers it’s plateau state… From history. Because South East and South South make the most of football business pushing players abroad does not mean they have the most talent…
Biko how many players from plateau are plateau origin / indigenes?is it obi mikel,onanzi,simon Moses, who all grew up there but are southern/Eastern by origin?
I’m not arguing about how the whole of Nigeria produce good players for the team but it’s a fact that the east especially are the best when it comes to football including the female team as well.. It’s not a thing to derial the rest of Nigeria but that’s the fact. If I may ask can you list the players from plateu cos i can’t even remember one.
I am really disapointed on this one. How can you retain a coach who is a total falure a coach whom i a non professional is better than. Wat about salisu or manu garba. Samson siasia. Common pinnick or peakmilk you are becoming a disapointment. Since u came on board we the nigerdelters are still waiting for ur first major title not under 17 or our girls hell No, that is our birth right we want a nations cup or olympic then worldcup bronze then we can mold ur face in history but the way u are jeopardising with the teams with ur fake coaches will put ur name in our dust bin.
In my opinion Aigbogun is not a bad coach.We were outplayed by the USA fine but got a draw with the eventual winners.Do not forget the routing of Qatar.The lose in the second round was a bitter pill to swallow because we played our best game.
I think he was just unfortunate because in the playoffs in Africa his team dominated but was unfortunate but i wouldn’t call him a failure because we qualified for the world cup.
Another good side to his coaching is his abilities to lure European players of Nigerian decent.Born in the UK with a good coaching qualifications.Aigbogun exceled in the domestic scenes and was unarguably one of the best indigenous coaches in Nigeria.
Candidly,i do not see any reasons why he shouldn’t be retained.I do not think players was imposed on him by popular thinking.It’s just that things didn’t go his way.I think we Nigerians should start facing reality and know that it’s not our birth right to win every competition.When a coach fails to win a tournament he is suddenly a bad coach we shouldn’t allow our emotions to get the better of us.
However,the competition is a few weeks away you think a new coach can do well given the timing?i don’t think so it’s too short a time to build a fresh team.Aigbogun has a team already so he is in the best conditions to take this team to the all Africa games.
My broda its not about winning or losing, its about the style or pattern of play we saw from Aigbogun’s teams in both the junior afcon and the world cup proper. Coupled with his exploits at enyimba, there’s enough evidence to suggest that this man is not the person to be in charge of any of our national football teams
We should stop praising GR like as if he has won the World Cup for Nigeria, he is a below average coach by every standard. His woeful performance at the world cup particularly in the match against Argentina and his clueless match against Algeria which was won by the Algerian bench, shows his ineptitude, he has given his best , he does not know any better. Besides to say he is not corrupt or does not favor players is bogus afterall he consistently went to Belgium before the World cup to invite Moses simon while ignoring samuel kalu in the same team, onyekuru and Bonaventure were also in Belgium too creating waves in their teams.It also manifested at the just concluded Afcon where he consistently featured Musa and Moses Simon at the expense of a player like onyenkuru who was the only Nigerian player that won a league title last season, even when it was obvious that Musa was not effective he enjoyed playing time anyway. Quote me any day Onyenkuru and samuel Kalu are better than Musa and Moses Simon. He has some people who are influencing him, he calls them his scouts, they brought this guy (forgotten his name) is it Simi from Italy few weeks to the World cup and he made the list, What role did he play at the World cup and at that period Awoniyi was one of the hottest strikers in Belgium yet he overlooked him. Just before the nation’s cup he brought in Onuachu and he made the team, watch the pattern, these guys didn’t take part in the prelims yet they jump the line, with the help of “SCOUTS” Then check the goalkeepers Alakpasu is the only Nigerian goalkeeper that has ever won golden gloves in any competition , Uzoho was his assistant in 2013. . Musa was on the bench for a whole season at leicester city yet he consistently made our team, the same with kelechi ihenacho but not Isaac Success. The point is they were all inactive. I beg make we left matter. Nigerian Football- for Nigerian football to grow we have to take football to schools from primary school to higher institutions. so that our system can begin to throw up talents every year like it used to be years back and our young players should be counseled to stop signing for big teams, they should instead be signing for teams in Belgiun Holland french and scandanavian clubsides that will help them grow.
If onyekwere was so good what did he finally do when he came on against Algeria. It was obvious it was a good decision to bench him in afcon because he wasn’t at the required level at that point in time. Club football is not the same as national team games.
Awoniyi is not even a regular in u23, so he stands no chance for now in supereagles
A lot of sense in there. I like the Awoniyi and Alampasu part.
I usually say between a Ruud Van Nisteroy and Giroud,Rohr won’t even think before picking Giroud. That’s his prototype of who a striker should be.So that’s why Ighalo,Simi,Onuachu.
It would take a change of philosophy for him to consider Awoniyi,Osimhen,Henry,etc. Perhaps Ighalo’s retirement will force his hand slightly.
Cheers
Onyekuru only played for about 25 minutes + – through out the entire tournament, you can’t assess a player with such limited playing time. Am not very sure many Nigerians watch Turkish league week in week out, those of us that does watch Turkish league know that onyekuru is a better player than muse presently. Awoniyi was one of our hottest strikers in Europe Pre World cup 2018. His form dipped last season I agree.
How on earth,is this man still on the job. Tufiakwa!
Has Aigbogun proved himself afterall? Well, let’s see if he wins the gold …