Girondis Bordeaux forward Josh Maja aims to prove his Nigeria call-up is not just a lucky break by proving himself at club level, reports Completesports.com.
Maja made his debut for Nigeria in the 2-2 friendly draw against Ukraine last September.
The 21-year-old has been left out of the squad since then but is determined to show he has the talent to play for the Super Eagles.
“Of course, playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues and performing well will improve my chances [of international selection],” Maja told BBC Sport Africa.
“I’ve settled in well since I joined (from English club Sunderland in January 2019).
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“I’ve adapted to the playing style and culture of the league and I’m hoping to play more games in the future. It’s a great experience in a top league.
“The Nigerian team has always had quality, but now there are a lot of young talents playing, so the future is very bright for us.
“Hopefully the opportunity comes to play and help them make history.”
The choice to play for Nigeria rather than try to represent England, the country of his birth, seems to have been an easy one.
“Playing on an international stage was a dream of mine. To represent my country and make my family proud,” he insisted.
“I’m familiar with my roots. I went to Nigeria a few times when I was young, and in the next few years I’ll be going again.”
23 Comments
NFF will never look your side because you are not part of them. If the coach invited you, you be sitting on the bench.
Only Saka and Tammy Abraham that they care about NFF and the coaches really wanted these two players very badly in the Super Eagles. It is a pity. God bless Nigeria!!!
“NFF will never look at your side…” Yet he was invited for the game against Ukraine and was only dropped cuz he was not getting enough game time at Bordeaux. You claim NFF(and Rohr indirectly) will never look at his side yet Coach Rohr has been part of his success at Bordeaux. He’s been like a Father-figure to him(Maja) and Kalu. Frequently visiting the two of them and monitoring their progress in the club whenever he’s in France.
@Omo9ja na wa for you o. Maja is another bright kid we have in our squad. But he simply needs more game time and he’s working very hard. I believe he will be a Starter in Bordeaux this new season and will add to the list of Top Strikers we have to choose from. SE CF looking dangerous in 2021: Oshimen, Dessers, Simy, Umar, Maja, Dennis and many more to come
I think omo9ja has run amok cause there’s no possible explanation as to the utter thrash he keeps spilling day in,day out
Words of a psycho ….. Lol @ omozoo
Finally I get to comment, omo9ja this your statement is rather disappointing.
@Osh, in what way sir?
If you don’t mind, let’s go back to the history of our best players under coach Rohr if you don’t believe in what i just said.
1. Iwobi was inform before and during the world cup, why we didn’t see much of Iwobi in that tournament? and how about Afcon in Egypt? Maybe he was too young then?
2. Simmy wasn’t given enough of time to show his talent under the manager I’m talking.
3. Musa Muhammad is another player that deserves to be in that team.
Long story short @Osh, what I’m doing on here is to pass the message to the gaffers of the Super Eagles and NFF and if they refuse to do the right thing in time then, Mr. Sports minister steps in. It’s simple as that.
Look at the national stadium in Surulere that I sent the message over to the NFF few days ago through the CSN, the sports minister responded so well to that message and I’m very excited about it.
Although, it wasn’t the first time that I said something similar to that of the 2 to 3 days ago.
@Osh, let’s work collectively to make Nigeria great. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
In Rohr’s list of strikers to use before the lockdown, the arrangement is:
1. Osimhen
2. Dessers
3. Iheanacho
4. Maja
Every other striker follows behind these.
Rohr has even boasted that Osimhen should be wary of Maja cuz that will be his competition in time to come.
It just a matter of time, Maja will return again, sooner than most strikers hugging the headlines for now.
@omo9ja, U keep writing thrash upon thrash, mumbo jumbo upon mumbo jumbo, nonsense upon nonsense, didn’t Iwobi Starred at the Afcon, he played when he should and even Mikel was benched coz of him, it was always Iwobi and one of Etebo/Mikel at the Afcon, so what thrash are you vomiting
How many CFs can GR play per game or take as part of his 23 man squad to a tournament? (Obviously he can’t enlist 23 strikers) at most 2 per game depending on his game plan cum tactics and opposition. So, it is absolutely amazing at times when we keep dropping names [every time such players score at club level or get a mention in the press] on the man to play this, play that, it’s not that easy. Every budding team needs continuity to gel into a solid team (barring any prolonged loss of form). If for any reason, during any of the AFCON 2021/QATAR 2022 qualifiers, GR drops V.Oshimen to the bench and plays let say Sadik Umar and we get to loose, my oh my, na we wey dey clamour for new faces go begin crucify the man… there is a holistic way of subtracting and adding to a team, we don’t have to go hush hush about it…
I rest my case and God bless Nigeria
Hehehehee…my brother…Rohr has to “create competition” in the team by starting 11 new players in every match.
Omo9ja has some truth about Rohr not giving new invitees enough time on pitch except for a few like Aribo. We are loosing Eze because of this slow motion sense and soon Saka will join.
But Omo9ja cool down for your hate against Rohr.
@Chima E Samuels, my lovely friend, I do not hate Oga Rohr you knew that quite well. I love Oga Rohr too much I don’t know why but when its comes to the matter of the Super Eagles, hmmm, I will put Eagles ahead of the gaffers of the team. Did I hate coach Agu too?
You can see now that I don’t hate nobody?
I am telling the manager to do the right thing at the right time.
The word “hate” is heavy. How would I?
He’s doing well and I appreciate his effort however, he just needs to do more so that Nigeria can have a fantastic team that you and I can be proud of.
That’s just it my friend. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
You have said with this your mouth full of lies that “he’s doing well” and tomorrow, the same you would come out and say he’s a disaster. Are you not being unecessarily stupid and wicked? If you knew he was doing well all this while, while would you be rooting for his ouster? Any way, we’ve known the kinda of person you are and just as Chima rightly put it, your hatred for rohr knows no bounds.
You can tame your word man, we don’t need all this your vague word here, we here to share soccer opinion and disagree to agree.
Ire oh. God bless omo zoo. You and this your Ire o dey always make me laugh. Well done o bros.
Your time go come calm down. You just came boys dey before you . for now just focus on your club performance so you can get call up from Oga Rohr
I always enjoy my time on this forum because I get to see people react from different perspective. However, in as much as I always disagree with Omo9ja’s position on so many topics, I still respect and appreciate his temperament, it’s very rare for him to exchange words with people (I hardly see him abuse people on this platform) even when you use harsh and negative words against him. He will just comment, give his opinion and look away. Thank you for that Omo9ja
@John Cena, many thanks to you bro. You are welcome. God bless Nigeria!!!
I think playing so many friendlies we give rohr opportunity to test as many strikers as possible.Team coerciveness can never be built by keep changing players every now and then.Area where we still need to concentrate more now is in the midfiled and goalkeeping areas we are kind of vulnerable in those areas.
Must our opinion be one,are we not different? Why must people insult people base on their opinion?some people just over do it and you begin to think they have other interest.honestly there are some things omo9ja say that I agree on,whereas there are some I don’t.must I insult him for that?even if coach rohr is my father. Let’s learn to respect others opinions.
@kingston tank you very much my brother. Every opinion must be respected.
Certainly not a silly opinion
Some super eagles players really played well this season, they might not have won trophies with their clubs but their game certainly improved.
I didn’t hear much about maja with the exception of his form in the first half of the season which fizzled out.
For now we have alot of players who will be fighting for the number 9 shirt of the super eagles. Osimhen is number one for now, with the likes of iheanacho and desser not close behind. Simeon is making a strong statement for a recall just like iheanacho he had a great season with 20 goals and a primotion ticket back to the serie A. Super eagles now pick players based on their present form and the needs of the team. I just hope will settle our defensive frailties and goalie issue, but with our two young keepers signing for new teams, the goal keeping issues may be solved sooner than we think.