Former Bafana Bafana captain Thulani Hlatshwayo hopes his SuperSport United teammate Ime Okon chooses South Africa over Nigeria.
Okon is born to a Nigerian father and a South African mother, making him eligible to play for either of the two countries.
According to Hlatshwayo, the 20-year-old has yet to decide but is also considering Nigeria despite being born in Johannesburg.
“I have told him he needs to stay in South Africa because it will be difficult for him to crack the Nigeria national team,” Hlatshwayo was quoted on www.thesouthafrican.com.
“To be able to crack the Nigerian national team, he needs to play in Europe — but we need him in Bafana Bafana.
“When you look at our centre backs, Mothobi Mvala has injuries, there is also Grant Kekana and Siyanda Xulu. I read Siyabonga Ngezana had an issue with his travel documents, but I don’t know what is happening there.
Also Read: Ondoa: My Desire To Represent Cameroon At AFCON 2015 Cost Me My Place In Barca
“His father is from Nigeria and mother from South Africa, he grew up here, he studied here and coach Gavin Hunt took him from Randburg Football Club. He is South African and he speaks Afrikaans.
“I told him I am going to stop helping him if he chooses to play for Nigeria because there are things in his game that need to be polished.
Hlatshwayo added:”The more he plays, the more experience he is going to get and he will do well. I don’t know if it has something to do with him being young but he is quick and strong and we complement one another very well.
“He is a rebel, every time there is Afcon, when Nigeria is playing he is with Nigeria and when South Africa is playing against Nigeria we have a lot of banter in the team.”
Copyright © 2024 Completesports.com All rights reserved. The information contained in Completesports.com may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of Completesports.com.
COMMENTS
Boy wait for your time with super eagles.
I think he should seriously consider playing for SA. The corruption in nff knows no bounds. They invite an unknown Tanzania bases Tanimu ahead of the likes of Ime Okon, Olisa Ndah, and other better defenders in Europe. Na wa
The Taminu you mentioned, did he delivered the job? Remove sentiment and judge wisely my brother
Exactly what I was about to say. A lot of people don’t appreciate decent players due to silly sentiments. As of today nobody knows why Anthony Izuchukwu is yet to be capped. Blessed with such a talent all he needed was a cap to better his CV and get a good club to improve his craft but dumbo now he’s languishing at Nantong where he scored a goal last week against Wuhan Three Crowns.
I am still calling on our coaches to give every talented players a chance whenever we have friendlies. Invite players to camp and see them closely you never can tell because a lot of talented players are in Europe that I witnessed at obscure Cyprus league who deserves better if not for Racism.
@Chima, the national team is not a place to help a player’s CV or help better a players career, but a place for a player who has already bettered there CVs. This is one of the corruption we talking about.
The national team is for well established players, not to help players get better contract etc.
That is the standard, but in a corrupt system like nff it is otherwise.
Hello have you checked the Antony Izuchukwu before you add the word corruption to this subject???
@Chima, I added corruption since only in SE/NFF you hear/read that a player is invited to help his career. It is not done in a sane football organisation. You don’t invite a player to the national team to help boost their career. The national team is meant for well establish players.
And the Antony you mentioned is a journeyman by looking at his wiki page playing at low leagues.
If he thinks he is good, then let him show it on the field in china after all there are scouts all over various leagues recruiting into top 10 leagues in the world.
I hope you understand.
Another one spotted!
I think he should seriously consider playing for SA. The corruption in nff knows no bounds. They invite an unknown Tanzania bases Tanimu ahead of the likes of Ime Okon, Olisa Ndah, and other better defenders in Europe. Na wa
Wait for your time. Don’t let them hassle you
Finidi should cap-tie him as soon as possible. He or whoever coach is appointed should do that to Ndah too. Play them in at least 3 competitive matches.
That’s what Southgate does just to weaken African teams, while he continues to stick to his original 11 with only Saka of the lot the only main team player.
A national team coach caps players developed by the country’s resources, facilities and funds and you say he’s weakening african teams….?!
Really…???
But here you are calling on Finidi to “cap-tie” a player just sọ his country of birth would not have access to him…even though it is near certain he will never become a SE regular…?
Please what is the definition of hypocrisy again…?!
@Dr. Drey, this is a matter of personal choice. Some players, in fact many, will choose their country of nationality over their birth country. We know how many Nigerian and even Ghanaian players Southgate has destroyed their national team careers by using his fellow average English coaches like Lampard then to scout and convince the players to play for them.
At least France is sincere with their poaching and don’t care how many black-skinned players there are in their team. Tell me at any point in time, England has had half of their team of African origin like France. The quota is 1 or 2 on the field, and currently, Saka fills that spot.
Anyway, I’m just making a recommendation to the coaching crew because two can play that game since it’s an unwritten code/policy of the English FA and Southgate, in particular, to poach any precocious African talent and dump him not long after. Let every country adopt that code too since FIFA has refused to step in to stem Southgate’s abuse. Till tomorrow, I will always celebrate a win against England, male or female team.
I’m sure South Africa will equally be eyeing Ndah and we know they’ve become a major competitor in the past 5 years now. We can’t sleep on the steering wheel or bike and be overtaken. And Nigeria doesn’t pounce on other African stars playing in our league, NPFL or NWFL.
You wrote all this prose and yet never answered a simple question.
How does capping players born in England, developed by England’s resources, facilities and funds amount to “poaching/weakening African teams…..?
Did African teams expend their resources on these players…? Some of these players have never even been to their so-called countries of origin…they even see themselves first as British, danish, german, dutch or whichever country in which they were born or grew up before seeing themselves as any other nationality.
And you claim they are being poached….LMAOooo
Why not look at yourselves in the mirror and call yourselves the real thieves who want to reap where you have not sown, by trying to cap players whose only affiliation with your country is the fact that their parents or grandparents were born in your country….nothing and nothing else your country has ever contributed to their lives.
You went ahead to drop a gigantic fallacy in saying “…Some players, in fact, MANY, will choose their country of nationality over their birth country…” LMAOOoo…please give us statistics to back this your claim up, otherwise look for a handkerchief and wipe off the side of your lips where that falsity slipped out from.
There are currently over 52 Nigeria-eligible players in EPL club’s 1st and development teams…..only 13 of them have opened themselves up to the idea of playing for Nigeria as various levels, thats’ about 25%. And that’s just the EPL alone o. We have not talked of the ones in the Bundesliga or the Serie A or elsewhere. Ditto for Ghana, Congo, and Francophone West Africa.
So please where are the many who are choosing their country of origin over their country of birth. It was only a few weeks ago you guys were complaining that they are choosing Nigeria as 2nd choice a la Joshua Zirkzee who stated clearly he would only consider Nigeria if Netherlands does not call him up….same thing the likes of Billing, Udogie and this Fiorentina kid have all said to our earing previously too.
The fact that you have asked Finidi to do the very same things you are illegally criticizing Southgate for removes the right from you to claim they are “weakening” or “poaching” any country.
If Nigeria too has spent money, energy and facilities on developing players from cradle to stardom, let them go and poach them too. But any country that calls up a player whom they have never ever spent a dime on directly or indirectly just for the sake of giving the player 3 caps to “cap-tie” him is a thief country filled with rogues. An FIFA must sanction such countries.
We are only going to be second option to these foreign born players. The best way to get them to play for us, is if for instance we can win the next NC. Success they say has many children but failure is an orphan. Brahim Diaz of Real Madrid had already changed his nationality switch to Morocco just on the backdrop of atlas Lion success at the wc. Already, we have seen osho and adebayo saying they will love to play for Nigeria after what the SE heroic performance at the NC.
Hi, folks. Have you all seen Allen Onyeama’s statement on the SE coaching job. He said there should no appointment of “idiot foreign coach” (just look at that) and that Austin Eguaveon succeeded to some level. This is more than a clear indication that there are vested interests that could ruin our football. Omoo, na bye bye to World Cup like this o.
I read it too and I was wondering what he meant by going to court to make sure NFF appoints a local coach to handle Super Eagles affair. Hmmmmmm…Rubbish…..I have not seen any local of Nigerian coach that is worth coaching Nigeria at this point…. Who are the Local coaches Enyeama is advocating for?…Those that refuse to improve themselves?…How many of them are coaching at the moment even at the Local level?…Only Finidi George….. Do we hand the affairs of our dear Super Eagles to the likes of Eguavoen & Ladan Bosso( those two have failed so many times after so many opportunities), Amunike (who still needs to prove himself locally),Siasia who is under suspension, Sylvanus Okpala (why has he not been coaching since after assisting Keshi to win 2013 AFCON?), Amokachie, Salisu Yusuf, Sunday Oliseh (he was there but failed because of lack of man management quality). These people are obvious risk that we can not afford to take at this moment. Finidi George, maybe yes but still needs some tutelage under another foreign coach…Let Finidi start with CHAN Eagles. I still believe all of these local coaches are opportunists who have nothing to offer yet unless they prove themselves just like what Finidi is doing with Enyimba locally. They (ex players) are not helping themselves by sitting down doing nothing to advance their careers and only waiting on the sentiment of being a Nigerian coach. that is not enough….Not even at this time when we have few months to two crucial games in June with Bafana boys and Republic of Benin….If Allen Onyeama or whatever his name is wants to help the National team with his money, he should continue to provide the logistics that he has been known for and leave the decision to contract a new coach to NFF and the Sports Ministry…..
Come off the whiskey you drinking, if you took time to read what he said clearly, what is the crime in hiring a local coach. You keep ranting here asking stupid questions about the ex-players are not doing anything to help their career, please are you an Herbalist or Prophet to know they not doing anything to help their career. The man made a valid point that the NFF would rather make excuses for foreign coaches when they don’t do well, but quick to chase the local coaches away, is he lying. How did oliseh fail, because he disciplined a player, many of you didn’t cry when kelechi was not started at the AFCON. Wasn’t pasaeiro hired with losing records, wasn’t he given still given the coaching affairs. Abeg if you not interested in supporting the local coaches, you free to follow Benin republic or wait till paseiro get hired about her another team.
Oga Kenneth….I made a post and I don’t think I overstep my bounds by writing what I feel. I have not insulted anyone here.. Let us discuss intelligently without calling anyone stupid or drunk of whiskey, please…Thank you
Oga Olu, let me be a man and apologize for my utterance. Thought is now the norm to begin response we insults on this platform, since CSN is not doing anything about those who are not ready to argue intelligently. My major concern is the hatred some Nigerians have in not seeing any good in their fellow brothers. Isn’t the same licence that the so called oyinbo coaches obtained that Finidi and Amuneke has. How many more teams do they have to coach before they can land the national team job. Like I stated earlier, paseiro and Rorh were hired with losing records as part of their CV. Hope you understand where am going.
Allen Onyeama is just one person and entitled to his opinion just like everyone else who is a citizen of Nigeria.
I respect his opinion but it does not represent that of the whole populace.
People just think because they’ve money their opinion must be heard and accepted regardless.
We have a technical committee and a football association,it’s there job to appoint the next super eagles gaffer,whoever is appointed must be respected,Allen Onyeama should understand this because no one would randomly walk in to his office and take charge of proceedings,I don’t think Allen would welcome that…
Thank you…..
@Greenturf and Olu to add more to it, is Allen Onyeama not operating Lagos to London on a Norwegian airline with Norwegian crews, why not insist on using the airline and have Nigerian crews onboard.
Of course he is a businessman and he will look at what is the best for himself, so is the SE, the NFF have to look at what is the best for our SE.
Have you asked why he is operating the route with a Norwegian airlines. I will advice you do some research next time before trying to run down the man. Several of their aircrafts are on ground at Boeing and because CBN is not releasing their funds in a timely manner, they had to enter the contract with the Norwegian airlines. And part of the contract is for the Norwegian airlines crew to operate the route. And I believe the contract is for 3 to 4 months. So what exactly is the correlation with the issue on ground.
So why can’t he wait for that 3 to 4 months, look the man took a business decision that suits his needs, that’s his problem.
He is not in a position to decide for NFF, there is a reason we have them, they are the SE football policy makers and its their responsibility to chose whoever they think is best qualified to lead SE.
Onyeama can go to court as he promise in his interview that he is willing to back and finance it.