Belgian-born Nigerian striker Cyriel Dessers has said he is looking forward to featuring for the Super Eagles, Completesports.com reports.
Dessers who plays for Dutch Eredivisie side, Heracles, made this known after he was given the Revelation of The Year Award, at the maiden edition of The Ballers Award held on Sunday in Lagos.
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Reacting to the award, Dessers expressed his delight for being the recipient.
He also thanked everyone who voted for him.
“Honoured to get this award! It means a lot to me, thanks Naija footballers and people who voted for me.
“Hope to see you soon,” he wrote on his verified Twitter handle on Monday.
In December 2019, Dessers declared his intention to play for Nigeria after discussing with NFF president Amaju Pinnick.
“After series of discussion with the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, I have decided to fully commit myself to Nigeria and the Super Eagles and I am going to work to be part of the team and fight for more sucesss for the country.
“I am a proud Nigerian, and I can’t wait to fulfill my dream of wearing the green white green.”
Meanwhile other winners at the award include Super Eagles trio of Wilfred Ndidi, Daniel Akpeyi and William Troost-Ekong who won Footballer of The Year, Goalkeeper of The Year and Defender of The Year awards respectively.
In the women’s category, Super Falcons defender Onome Ebi got the Female Footballer of The Year award.
Former Super Eagles striker Odion got the Humanitarian of The Year and Forward of The Year awards.
By James Agberebi
35 Comments
Absolutely brilliant innovation. Thumbs up NFF.
The awards isn’t organized by the NFF. It’s an innovation thought all through by a sport journalist who cares about rewarding true hard work and sportsmanship. His name is Gbenga Salu. He is the founder of a virtual soccer space. Search for Naijafootballers on Instagram and YouTube.
Thanks!
Thanks Abiola Joseph. I take all my praise back from NFF n transfer to Gbenga Salu. God bless your creative mind @Salu Gbenga.
Can’t wait to see this Dessers in a Nigerian shirt
There is no way that this Yong lad will not succeed in SE for He was not push before he determined to make his choice ,credit to Desser You are born of your father, thanks for yourgood family you are having
Akpeyi goalkeeper of the year hmmm, Buhari see you have caused gk talent to be scarce as well.
Gernot Rohr has not been happy with the idea of Pinnick going to promise footballers a slot in the SE and snapping public pics with them. I just hope Rohr will like this whole idea of Dessers and the award thing. As a professional we should allow him do his job. From feelers I get, Rohr esteems Ovie Ejaria higher than Ebere Eze. He esteems Dennis Bonaventure higher than Cyriel Dessers. Not that he hates Eze and Cyril but he thinks they are lower in the pecking order. But unfortunately he feels Pinnick is trying to force these boys down his throat. I also cant blame Pinnick too cos i think hes very passionate abt Naija football and wants us to succeed at all cost. As far as am concerned Pinnick is the very best FA chairman of all time i have ever seen in Nigerian football. I pray both great men can find a compromise and work together harmoniously for the good of our football.
Do this ejaria of a guy need FIFA clearance to play for us?
And Who exactly is this Dessers supposed to Push out of Super Eagles is it Victor Oshimhen or Kelechi Iheanacho who has found his feet again?…Abeg make I hear word
He can easily push Paul Onuocha away
Whether push in or push out, he thoroughly deserve a chance so we see his performance with SE. HE is nigerian n every Nigerian doing exceptionally well whether home or foreign based deserves a chance. The key word is ” doing exceptionally well”. It will amount to foolishness for some to think SE is their fathers property. Bigggggg lie. It’s for all us
Rohr wouldn’t use him even though the guy fits his style of play.
Everyone can see now that Oga is not good enough to manage Super Eagles team.
How long we have have calling coach Rohr’s attention to this guy?
He keeps ignoring him.
He also ignored Osigwe but opted for Akpayi.
Coach Rohr fans, which way forward? God bless Nigeria!!!
How many players can the Oga bring to the National team, for God’s sake? Always looking for an opportunity to disparage our National coach. One of these days, you will get your wish and Rohr will eventually leave. Waiting to see whom you and your cohorts will replace him with.
Take note, when Rohr goes, so goes the Super Eagle and could be replaced by Super chicken.
He will replace him with Amunike as head coach, Yobo and Mikel as assistants and Taribo West as Technical Adviser. And then we will win AFCON 2021 and reach 2022 world cup semi finals. LMAO
Hahahaha @Dr Drey
@ so shall it be in naija name. Amen
In all honesty,I feel this ego fight between NFF president, Amaju Pinnick and Gernot Rohr is not good for the Super Eagles.I have watched Ebere Eye play and believe me, that guy can contribute some creative spark to our Super Eagles.For Cyril,He deserves a call up, the highest goal scorer in Eredivisie?He should be given a chance.
If I was Roar, based on current form, this will be my call-up list for next internationals-
Goalkeepers-Akpeyi, Maduka, Osigwe
Defenders-Ekong, Awaziem,Semi Ajayi,Collins, Aina, Bryan Idowu, Omeruo,Shehu.
Midfielders-Ndidi, Aribo, Etebo, Iwobi(Form before his injury), Mikel Agu.
Forwards-Osimhen,Chukwueze, Josh Maja, Iheanacho,Kalu, Cyril Dessers, Musa
In my own opinion, I don’t think we need C-D, although I like his willingness to play for 9ja, the boy maja is a gem and blessing in disguise. I think Sodiq is a better player in all area than Onanchu and C-Desseres.
dessers must been invite to the national team
Desser.. deserve a call up to Super eagle ..Paul onuachu with all d weak legs in d squad should be chase out…oga Rohr take note..Ezenwa out..Akpeyi on bench. ..Osigwe in post ..maduka undercover!!
_Will Dessers add value to the Super Eagles?_
Upon receiving a prestigious award organised by Niger Footballers in Lagos last weekend, Belgium born Nigeria prospect Cyriel Dessers expressed his gratitude , eagerness and willingness to play his first match for the Super Eagles.
Speaking on social media, the 25 year old striker said:“Honoured to get this award! It means a lot to me, thanks Naija footballers and people who voted for me.
Hope to see you soon.”
But how soon? What does he bring to the table?
With a plethora of options for Nigeria upfront (including Osimhen, Iheanacho, Onuachu, Kayode O., Maja and Sadiq Umar), some are questioning the inclusion of Dessers to an already crowded field of quality options.
Quoting contributor ‘Unique’ above, he said: ‘In my own opinion, I don’t think we need Cyriel Dessers.
Although I like his willingness to play for 9ja, the boy Maja is a gem and blessing in disguise.
I think Sadiq Umar is a better player in all area than Onanchu and Cyriel Desseres.” End of quote.
There are, however, very many Super Eagles fans who beg to differ. These set of fans (very many in number) welcome Dessers’enthusiasm and passion and are happy that he has pledged his allegiance to Nigeria.
They see Dessers as a quality addition to the Super Eagles family – one sure to score many goals in national colours going by his current club form.
Whatever the case may be, only time will tell.
The problem is not that we are short of options nor that one or two may not suit the system to play, rather its which 3 to pick out of 10 players.
So far we have;
Victor Osimhen, Paul Onuachu, Kelechi Iheanacho, Josh Maja, Dennis Bonaventure, David Okereke, Chuba Akpom, Sadiq Umar, Peter Olayinka and Cyriel Dessers as players currently in form or who have been selected in 2019 or declared availability. When we add Olanrewaju Kayode coming back into form and the lack of friendlies before the next competitive games in march, it seems the likes of Dessers, Akpom, Sadiq, Okereke will have to wait a little longer for their chance to stake a claim.
With Rohr unlikely to try something new, it’s a safe bet that he will go for Osimhen as first choice striker and two of Bonaventure, Iheanacho, Onuachu and Maja to support Victor
Spot on BigD!
I think we need to try Dessers in a friendly. Not to reward him for choosing to play for Nigeria. But because he is a quality striker, and we need to see just what he brings to the table. A striker that can get you goals is always a valuable thing in this game called football. Dessers is a goal scorer, and is deadly in and around the box. Also makes plenty of assists. It is guys like this that make the difference in tough matches. So, while I agree that we’ve got a plethora of options, I think it would be a big mistake to just write Dessers off before seeing what he has to offer!
@Pompei, no not to write him off, rather we both (both you and I)stated that he waits for a friendly match possibly June/July 2020.
We are in agreement
Yes BigD, I agree with your write up. It’s too risky to just throw him into a competitive match. We need to see him in a friendly first, ideally. So we need a friendly asap. Hopefully we can squeeze one in before our next round of qualifying matches.
@deo what does he brings to table? It’s a good question and expectations of all Super Eagle fans. Looking at his stats, he’s a good player and deserve to be call up. Although we have surplus on ground, but we don’t need surplus, we need quality dependable strikers that will have a mindset of becoming a legend in super eagle jersey. Lets keep our finger crossed until then!
The ideal thing to do is to give the guy a chance, which I think Rohr will. In a game of football, you can never tell what a player can do until he’s giving game time to prove himself on the pitch. Most of us clamour for onuachi inclusion in the eagles team but today not many were convinced about his performance. So let him play, then we will know if his good enough to justify subsequent invitation.
Maybe you don’t know oga Rohr, he will stick with his ineffective onuachu, someone who slow the pace of the game, because he is too tall. Germans are naturally conservative.
I’m happy for Dessers and hope to see him in the Super Eagles Jersey and score a lot of goals for Nigeria and winning cups .
There’s an issue that worries me. During the voting for the women’s Africa footballer of the year award in which Asisat Ishola won the award , it was discovered that NFF and other Nigeria representatives. Which also consist of Perpetual Nnwocha did not vote for Asisat.It shoes that there’s something tribal going on with Nigeria football . That Ishola equal Nnwocha’s record should be a thing of joy and not an act of sabotage is what I m concerned about.pinnick has been doing tjinhs out of bias minda for sometime . Snapping pics with Tammy Abraham and Ebere Eze is not ideal esp when trying to reach out to s player to come and play for his national team. Fikayo Tomori said that NFF never reached him and I’m starting to believe. That it must be true . You go to Abraham and Eze to snap pics and ask them to play for Nigeria only for them to decide to play for England . I wonder what is this NFF president doing self .
He’s having issues with CAF and the home front
And also imposing some funny clauses on a coach’s decision on players to play for the national team. Seriously there’s a lot that needs to be dealt with over this issue ……
Onuawuchi is some hight with Pogba but pogba run like horse but onuawuchi cant run
Although,I can understand the wisdom,For one;I don’t think it matters when you invite a player for his international cap.
Friendly match or important match,It doesn’t really matter when. It doesn’t really tell how good or bad a player would turn out to be. It is what the player have to offer that matters. Quality always shine through no matter when. Quality begets consistency.
Besides,life is all about time and chance and you never know till you try.
Some players do well in friendly games and falter during important matches; point in case ; Onuachu.
Some players are thrown into the deep end of international duty on important matches and show right through how good they are;for one Didier Drogba first international match for Ivory coast was an important Afcon qualifier. Of course we all remember how Emmanuel Amunike came into the scene as an unknown but played in the final of an Afcon,we saw how that turned out; not to forget Jonathan Akpoborie making his debut at the Afcon 92 and went ahead through the line to do good for us through important qualifiers.
My take is, caution should be observed,yes, but with wisdom and not with fear or worry.
Sometimes,you go out there and take your chance when time serves it to you. Time really waits for no one.
Although we keep wishing our players the top most of form; We don’t know what would happen in the days surrounding the qualifiers, we don’t know what form they all would be then. But as at present, it would be foolhardy not to invite Dessers to the national team no matter how important that match is,not for anything but based on performance. Apart from Osimhen, He is simply the best out there in the number 9 position and Osimhen needs a backup. He could be valuable.
Besides,who are his competition?
Iheanacho isn’t really competing with Osimhen, Iheanacho basically got a space in that team more as an 8,the player behind the forward. He has done that with Ideye and Ighalo in the past,So Iheanacho is safe.
Maja For me,in the same position as Dessers,simply untested. He didn’t really have a kick of the ball when he came in,in the friendly and this is one that can also play as a strike partner as well in the wings.so he is as well safe.
Onuachu should be let go. He has been given his chance and hasn’t taken it.the Dutch league is higher than the Belgium league.and Dessers has better return.
Umar,Olayinka, mostly untested and both in inferior leagues compared to Dessers.so could be excused.
Kayode just coming back and never took his chance when he was in the fold,would have to see.
Musa,Simon,Dennis,Samu,Kalu are basically wingers.so all safe.
(But got Ejuke,Sedidika,Onyekuru,looking over their shoulders).
So for me, Dessers have a high rate of been invited for the next match,no natter what level. And if he is invited,For me, it is well deserved.
Especially Ejuke and Sekidika. These two wingers are able to give even Chukwueze a run for his money, if they are given the chance. Right now, in addition to strikers, I believe we have very good wingers. It is up to Rohr to select the best and utilize them well.
I love the energy and patriotism coming from this lad.He wants to play for Nigeria and has not hidden his desires.The passion is glaring but is that enough to get an invite to the super eagles?
News on the media is never short about this player,his exploits,sadly the gaffer has been mute amidst uncertainties over his future creating heated debates whether he would get his chance when hostilities begins in March or not from fans and media alike.
Meanwhile,playing for a small club in a league not rated among the top five in Europe has not made his chances inevitable unfortunately.Let’s say for instance he plays for a premiership team with the goal return he has in Holland,definitely the gaffer would be head over heels in demand for the services of this resourceful striker.Sadly,that’s not the case with Dessers.
Decisions has not been impetuous probably the reasons mentioned above compared to the situation with Abraham who has about similar goal returns but features in a much bigger league.
Though history has proven the league does not necessarily define the player.
However,March is just around the corner.The gaffer has a big decision to make whether to invite Paul Onuachu who has been uninspiring and below par on international duties or take the chances and invite a certain Dessers,a greenhorn who could be the next big thing.
We patiently awaits.