Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) technical director Austin Eguavoen has expressed disappointment with Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle’s inability to select some players in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) for the just-concluded 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Eguavoen made this known in an interview with Footy Africa, where he noted that there are some quality players within the NPFL that could have been named in the final list for the tournament.
He also stated that the NFF won’t influence Chelle’s selection of players for any competition.
“I felt disappointed that we did not include some NPFL players in the AFCON squad. Some players in the team may not even get a minute of action, so why couldn’t we include a few players from the local league? At least three or four would have been better.
“The players are not bad, and just because we didn’t do well at CHAN doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. That said, I think this is something we need to look into because it speaks volumes when players come directly from the local league into a major tournament like AFCON.”
“There is an issue. The selection of players for the Super Eagles is the responsibility of the coach. We can only advise him; we cannot force players on him. I must also say that he has a lot of respect for the players and wants to see how he can gradually bring them through. We have discussed this a few times, but the timing has to be right.
“I believe those boys will get their chance if they continue to perform well. It’s not just about advising him—I think he will do it. He has visited some venues, but one thing I would like us to discuss and push for is for him to stay more in Nigeria. If he stays in the country more often, he will have better opportunities to visit venues and watch players. If he doesn’t, it becomes more difficult.”
5 Comments
Afcon 2027 qualifiers begins in late March and Mr “Express Yourself” wants to sabotage Chelle already after the nations cup “hope” failed spectacularly.
Now that CAF wants to cancel chan altogether, Super Eagles coaches in years to come will be under intense pressure to introduce home based players that can’t lace the boots of players abroad who grew up in technical football knowledge from their mothers wombs due to deliberate football training from the young age.
Oga, position of technical advisor (I am shocked NFF let Chelle “pick” most of his afcon squad sha, maybe they expected him to fail so that Mr “Rescue” will come back for the 250th time) is not for a lifetime.
Park well and let Chelle do his job. I think sports ministry wanna pay for refresher courses for him.
Let him be, Eguavoen.
Home based players my foot
Npfl no be psl
Mr. Technical Eguavoen . you need to leave this NFF. you are one of the problem of Nigeria football.
NPFL players did not do well in CHAN , and they do not do well all on the continent . Their inclusion in the national team in recent years has not been encouraging. There is a problem with the quality of players and coaching in the NPFL and that is where your work comes in. How do we rectify that problem. ? The results in the tournaments they participate in That is the work you should focus on now. Putting players in the national team is just treating symptoms not causes . Why are the quality of how are players so poor that we cannot make any impact on the continent or in competitions? Please solve that problem first before you clamor for inclusion in the national team. Besides when you were the National team coach , how many did you include?
Hahahaha…..Chelle watch your back….. LMAOoo.
Once Egauvoen begins to sound like this, please start watching your back.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong…..this same Egauvoen went to 2021 Afcon without a single NPFL player. He executed the failed 2022 world cup playoffs without a single NPFL player. He came back in caretaker capacity to execute the entire 2025 Afcon qualifiers, again, without a single NPFL player.
He has suddenly woken up from slumber to now remember there is a domestic league in Nigeria that deserves 3 to 4 slots in the SE……LMAOoo.
I have advised you to take up that lifetime opportunity of $100k per month and a chance to coach at the world cup Tunisia is offering you, but you seem to be carried away by the fake praises you are getting from fake human beings masquerading as patriots. It’s this same fake patriots the NFF and eguavoen will use against you once they want to force you out of that job you are hanging on to with dear life because improving your CV depends heavily on it…… LMAOoo
Chelle, run o…..!!! Before they will strip you off all your assistants and backroom staff and appoint Joseph Yobo again as the man with the best credentials to be your sole assistant.
We’ve seen this movie before…..and we know how it ended.
Mr Austin Eguavoen if you don’t have anything better to say just shut up please. How many of local players did you carry to afcon in 2023?
If I were you, I would applaud Eric Chelle for giving us good football.