Former Nigerian forward, Jonathan Akpoborie has revealed that the recall of Odion Ighalo back to the Super Eagles squad may later backfire on coach, Gernot Rohr.
Ighalo, 32, retired from the Nigerian senior national football team after helping the Super Eagles to a third-place finish at the 2019 AFCON in Egypt where he emerged as the top scorer.
The Saudi-Arabia based striker is among the 23 players invited for the November games in the race for qualification for Qatar 2022.
However, in an interview with Completesports.com, Akpoborie said that he has nothing against Ighalo’s invitation to the team but that his recall may just be a wrong move for Rohr.
“To be fair, I don’t think I have anything against the recall of Ighalo to the Super Eagles. However, I hope this won’t backfire on Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr considering the fact that we have other strikers doing a good job for the team.
“The likes of Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi, Paul Onuachu are not doing badly for their respective clubs in Europe and also in the Super Eagles. But my question now is, what’s the motivation behind’s Ighalo’s invitation? Is the striking position our biggest headache or the midfield? If we don’t have creativity in the midfield, it will be difficult for strikers to score goals.”
Exclusive: ‘I Hope Ighalo’s Return To Super Eagles Won’t Backfire On Rohr’ -Akpoborie
Austin Akhilomen
Augustine Akhilomen is a passionate sports content writer. A fan of the Super Eagles and Chelsea. My aim is to promote the game of sports globally.
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4 Comments
It will. I am sure. Because deceit is behind it.
“The likes of Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi, Paul Onuachu are not doing badly for their respective clubs in Europe and also in the Super Eagles. But my question now is, what’s the motivation behind’s Ighalo’s invitation? Is the striking position our biggest headache or the midfield? If we don’t have creativity in the midfield, it will be difficult for strikers to score goals.”
God bless you more Mr. Akpoborie.
The time will tell. Ighalo issue is not the only problem of that team but the coach is confused.
He do not know where to start. He needed a player in the midfield to give our strikers ball to score goals but he opted for a striker. Chai, who will supply Ighalo upfront?
Instead, he brought Ighalo in. For now, is it guaranteed that Osimeh will be available these encounters?
If not, is there any other options apart from Ighalo in the team?
We have Sodiq, Dennis and Dessers that are doing wonderfully well, why are these players not included?
Ebuehi and Bassey, what happened to these players?
The only thing we can do is to keep telling NFF and Oga Rohr that this squad is not strong enough to win anything.
That gaffer, I mean Oga Rohr is now half French/German/Nigerian.
It may backfire of course but the time will too late then.
Hmm. Follow patriotic Nigerians, don’t rely on this Oga Rohr and NFF issue because they not representing us but themselves.
We are watching Oga Rohr and his employer very closely. God bless Nigeria!!!
Antecedents have shown us that when players come back to the national TEAM from retirement, it has always been disastrous. Ighalo came back in 2019 and he was lucky. Would he be twice lucky, only time will tell. The biggest problem in the team is lack of creative midfielders which the coach should hv sorted out b4 now and not recallin g a striker 4rm retirement. hgnqpghuHG
How can a competent coach will allow such thing to happen