President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick and Super Eagles interim technical adviser Austine Eguavoen met Super Eagles stars in London on Tuesday ahead of the crucial 2022 FIFA World Cup World Cup playoff against the Black Stars of Ghana, reports Completesports.com.
NFF General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, Chief Coach Emmanuel Amuneke and Team Secretary Dayo Enebi were also part of the contingent that visited the players.
The delegation met William Troost-Ekong, Emmanuel Dennis, Oghenekaro Etebo and Samuel Kalu during the visit.
Pinnick and his team also visited Leicester City’s trio; Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho and Ademola Lookman.
Read Also: Hudson-Odoi Undecided About Representing Ghana Ahead W/Cup Qualifiers With Nigeria
Pinnick also restated the team’s commitment towards securing a place in the world cup.
“In furtherance to my tweets regarding our plans to ensure we qualify for this year’s @FIFAWorldCup
in Qatar, we’ve held a series of meetings in London with our Super Eagles players. Myself, the General Secretary, Team Secretary, Interim
Technical Adviser, Austin Eguaveon and the Chief Coach, Emmanuel Amunike,” he wrote on the social media.
“We also officially welcomed Ademola Lookman into the family and got commitments and reassurance from Dennis.
“A zoom meeting of all Super Eagles players followed with the Hon Minister, Sunday Dare present.
“The decisions and commitments were unanimous leaving no stone unturned in ensuring we scale
the last hurdle of qualification and make a very prominent and eminent presence in Qatar 2022 by
THE SPECIAL GRACE OF GOD.”
The Super Eagles will battle eternal rivals Ghana for a place in Qatar 2022.
The first leg is billed for the Cape Coast Stadium on March 24, while the reverse fixture will hold three days later at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja.
By Adeboye Amosu
50 Comments
Should We Welcome Prodigal Son Emmanuel
_Dennis Back To The Super Eagles?_
Reports emanating from several Media platforms including CSN indicate that the NFF may have mended fences with Watford’s Emmanuel Dennis ahead of the Super Eagles’ do or die double header qualifiers against Black Stars Ghana in March.
A delegation of the Nigeria Football Federation travelled to the United Kingdom this month to meet Super Eagles players in efforts aimed at preparing them for the mammoth tasks of demolishing Ghana to grab the world cup ticket on offer.
One of the players pictured with the NFF president after the meeting is the much maligned Emmanuel Dennis. The winger became public enemy number one after failing to honour Super Eagles invitation for the just concluded Afcon.
Although administrative bottleneck played a major role in Watford refusing to release Dennis, most Nigerians felt the player himself didn’t do enough to force the club’s hand to release him for his country.
Fans felt Dennis was holding a grudge for being overlooked by previous German coach Gernot Rohr leading to him being blasé about representing Nigeria and eventually preferring to stay behind and score crucial goals to help Watford avoid relegation.
As a result, a number of media outlets reported that the Nigeria Football Federation had shut the door of future Super Eagles invitations to the dashing winger.
However, with Dennis appearing in the picture alongside Amaju Pinnick and other players, it seems like all is forgiven and forgotten.
Having failed woefully in the 2021 Afcon despite playing a pleasing brand of football, failure to qualify for this year’s world cup will be devastating. Nigeria needs all her top guns against the Black Star of Ghana.
It is a no brainer: this is not a time for sentiments. All hands should be on deck to ensure an aggregate victory in March’s world cup qualifiers, hence it is understandable why Pinnick will now cuddle Dennis despite his Afcon rebuff.
Any Fans who criticise Pinnick for reaching out to Dennis can take it or leave it – world cup participation for Nigeria is non-negotiable.
Emmanuel Dennis, who has 8 goals in 21 outings for Watford this season, has failed to find the back of the net in 6 league games throughout the Afcon tournament period (something that brought mockery from a lot of Super Eagles fans who derided the player for missing the Afcon).
“. . . The winger became public enemy number one after . . .” To become an enemy of SE fans? What a hateful affair? Such a person will never rest!
Bro Dennis, let’s bury the hatchets, combine forces to send these BS out of our way . And you’ll turn to a darling!
Nice one, Deo.
Indeed, if The Menace was holding a grudge, he wouldn’t be in this pic. He is not a child, nobody can force him.
Next, we need status on Eze, Olise, Ejaria and Solanke.
When they go to Reading to see Ejaria, we also want to see Dele-Bashiru in the pics.
Finally, what is being done about the goalie situation?
We need reliable goalies for the Ghana debacle.
We definitely need Emma Dennis, I am up beat about this squad Amaju Pinnick is finally doing some good work. we need Calvin Bassey the Boy is unbelievable of late. reminds me of a improved and powerful Emmanuel Eboue of Ivory Coast and arsenal.
Dennis is officially forgiven, can we forget about the Afcon debacle now? Good to see Samuel Kalu and Etebo!
Yes o Baba your head dey there.
Respect kel some people are still embittered but na their cup of tea for who send them.
Certainly we need a playmaker in the mold of Eberechi Eze, if we really need to anchor our hope on the midfield.
Dinnis, our son, you are hereby forgiven. All will now be well with you from now henceforth in both Club and Country. NFF Chairman is fabulous for the wholesome job he is doing for the Nigerian people. However, the Nation don’t want the Basket in goal. Ozoho and or Adeleye is whom the Nigerian people really want.
Though one of them knows he isn’t qualified to be in their midst, great seeing the guys in high spirit. But should there be any meet the press afterwards, Pinnick or Eguavoen should the ones addressing the press. Good luck guys!
To be dumb is as good as being on the SE coaching bench. Austin Eguavoen is very outspoken at least we have listened to his several media briefing. I dunno of Amaju Pinnick and one others. For them to come together in the name of Nigeria is a big plus and exactly what I like. Next time, Amaju should ensure there’s a Nigerian flag there or one or two wearing our national jersey.
Thank you @Salami, I also expected to see green and white colors but whoside. Ghana would display their colors and even wear the Kente materials to decide where they are from. Even Coach Eguavoen wearing Suits as if he is there to speak grammar. Dennis had always been a good addition. Up Super Eagles all the same.
Straight outta Amaju Melvin Pinnick instagram account. CSN welldone. Anyway my own is what is Sports Minister doing in that group?
He has started his nonsense again.
It doesn’t mean we must invite all of them. There are good players in other leagues, is better we do a wide spread combing,not entering plane and landing only in England all the time. Any day I see another picture of you in England apart from other leagues, I will suspect you for another business.
Nigeria is the only country that 5 officials will enter the plane to go see players. I believe is buhari and Dare were chanced they would have join the flight, what a waste of resources. Equavon and Amunike or the team scout would have been Okay.
We need all our good players including Dennis,what we don’t need is quota system,if bassey is better than shehu Abdullahi invite bassey period.musa can even be dropped for this qualifiers since we have lookman,then he can be invited for world cup if we qualify,there will definitely be upto 28 players for each team,we need players that are firing on all cylinders,NFF can no longer pretend that we have players everywhere and lazy about in doing thier job,it was obvious that we need our best legs as was seen in the last Afcon,so this a good development,kudos to the coach and NFF
Pinnick you are doing a great job here, but I will advise to always keep things to urself, not all clothes we do spread in the opening, stop given ur opponents room to know your game plans. It will Make them also to up their plans. Is Ghana not planning ahead? .no body knows because it seems they are not planning , they are coming out to loud it. But in their camp iknow they will be up to something. Also as coach egu,.This caused our lost to Tunisia. NFF, pls learn to be secretive.thanks.
Positive situation! Hope that we have this world Cup ticket clinched!!! No time, no room for excuses!!!
All this is just waste of taxpayers money. Eguavon or Amunike is okay for the visit..
Which yeye tax payers money? I no go laff tire. Which tax do you pay? Can you paste your tax clearance certificate here? A beg leave Pinnick to do the needful.
LMAO monkey self dey pay tax!
To MONKEY POST, as long as Eguaveon is there, it is a waste of tax payers money. On a number of occasions Rohr went, it was job well done.
Roah went on his and highest with his P.A.. Not this one that they all went in their Dozens!!!
again all those naysayers saying Kalu is not 24 years old I am sure they can clearly see the boy is 24 turning 25 yrs old
Kalu’s father…thanks for the clarification lol.
NFF president is now the chief scout of SE abi? Misplace priority. What happen to calling the players on phone or chat on social networks.
Mr Amaju is blowing NFF budget on frivolities and nobody cares.
About eight men flew to London to have a talk with few % of players in a team. Foods, flight tickets, accommodation all on “we no get money” anthem of NFF. Make una kwantinue.
My brother don’t be surprised seeing people clicking the dislike button. Sometimes I wonder when things will be done right in this country. You will never see 5 officials board a plane in another country to go see players in diaspora. Sometimes it looks like other African countries have Sense more than us.2 person is Okay for this visit. I bet some coaching staff have not been paid, but money is wasted for unnecessary jamboree in the disguise of visiting players.
Abi na they will have money to junketing around but when it comes to paying the players and coaches wages and allowances they will say their is no money. The essence of the meeting is to go dialogue with the players about bonuses same way they did during afcons and we are where we are today. Waisting of tax payer mone on something that can be done one phone or at worst by the coach.
Why Nigeria failed in afcon and will continue to fail going forward
Diverse team and or team that reflects the demographics of the country: Senegal for example, the Wolof tribe makes up majority of Senegal and that reflects the team. Ismailia Sarr, Bouna Sarr, Idrissa Gana Gueye, Pape Gueye and more. And you have other minorities playing on the team. Mandinka tribe: Sadio Mane, Kheikhou Kouyate, Pape Abou Cisse and Aliou Cisse the coach. Fulani: Abdou Diallo, Habib Diallo and Boulaye Dia. The Nigerian team is mostly comprised of Igbo people at least 50% and they aren’t even in the top 5 most populated tribe in Nigeria when there are at least 250 tribes in Nigeria. People here are always complaining about the midfield and play dumb and know who the culprit is. The midfield is to busy dribbling the ball with no end product. I know Pinnick has his hand in recruiting, the coach that comes through has to do what he wants. So its a never ending cycle, I don’t know how long he has been there and has not brought anything good. The recruitment is hypercritical I see subpar Igbor players get recruited easily while non Igbo players have to be like Messi or Ronaldo to even get a mention
Huge egos: Nigerians are as big headed as this music industry. I remember clear as day when in the world cup they had to face Croatia, they were dancing with their phone in hands with headphones in their ears before the match started. Have some sense like Senegal they start celebrating and dancing after they win games. The players are not serious. All these crap interviews talking about I get inspiration from listening to wizkid, fela and etc, like that’s supposed to mean something. The most populated country in Africa and still cant get right, thats a shame
Prioritising mixed/biracial players. All these other teams have native or local goal keepers playing and doing a good job. From Mendy for Senegal, Andre Onana for Cameroon, Bounou for Morocco and the Egyptian goalkeeper. Watching them play, they did extremely well, especially the Egyptian goalkeeper against Morocco and beyond.. He was visibly upset when he had to get off for extra time when he put in that work. Gabal is a second choice goalkeeper and he got man of the match in which Egypt lost to Senegal. Okoye just breezes into the starting lineup out of nowhere. People like him because he is tatted and lightskin. People here saying oh he still Nigerian like all biracle players, they want them to play for Nigeria so bad, Nigerians and their low self esteem. Just like the people bleaching their skin in the Nollywood movies. Okoye is not good. I think Nigeria has the most biracial/mixed players in West Africa, they hate themselves so much. Francis Uzoho had a good thing going and the perfect size overall. Now Okoye soon have the most caps out of current goalkeepers
Inconsistent lineup: I remember seeing 6 different goalkeepers called up. I keep
saying this, Jamilu Collins is a bad defender, he has been on a relegated German club for more then 3 years and they never been promoted, how is he gonna help
Poor experiences: This Nigerian team got a bunch of relegated players and or players who are not playing in the top 5 leagues. Majority of Cameroon and Senegal players are playing and or starting for Ligue 1 teams. Since Senegal and Cameroon were colonised by france they have an easy access to get top league experience and bring that back to the national team. Andre Onana plays for Ajax that almost went to the champions league final. Mendy won the champions league with Chelsea. What is Okoye going to do? Even African french colonised countries have 2nd or 3rd choice goalkeepers playing in the french league. England prioritises their own people and academy players. Players of countries colonized by England most likely have to start in lower tier in the english league, because english league promote their own, use their academy and its tough to get in. If not that they have to start playing outside the top 5 league. The last time a Nigerian was recruited to play for english league was Taiwo Awoniyi and he left to go play for Union Berlin that could get 4th spot into champions league. Osimhen is playing in the europa league. The national team only got few top tier experience. Shoot, even Ekong cant adapt to the premier league he keeps getting beat and its obvious, watford already has terrible defense. Dennis has adapted to the premier league having 8 goals on a poor team. That is top tier experience, but he joint top in most yellow cards.
Social media recruiting: People here begging players born abroad or who is mixed/biracial players to play for Nigeria. Happened to Dessers and now they are all over Lookman page. When I look at the Senegalese and Cameroonian teams I see almost half the players born abroad, and they came to represent the national team without people begging them. The reason is because they have enough talent on the team even with local based players. The Senegal team for example, Boulaye Dia, Abdou Diallo, Kalidou Koulibaly, Nampalys Mendy, Bouna Sarr and Edouard Mendy.
Beautiful nonsense
It is a share waste of time reading his cabbage. He doesn’t know what he is talking about.
@Usman, you don’t have sense, you wrote rubbish. rubbish, is your kinds that will damage the country’s football if given the chance to rule. Take this energy of writing to meditate.
I mean instead of them saving all these expenses to treat other important issues like the players welfare/incentives and bonuses as earlier mention, they are parking themselves in dozens to visit these dudes when Amunike and Eguaveon would have been enough..
This Amaju just likes being in the spotlight. Why can’t Eguavoen and Amunike just be left alone to do their job and choose the players. I heard in some quarters that Eguavoen was done with Dennis but Amaju wants him and Ighalo in the team and is against Cyril Dessers being invited….
@Vincent hooooo uuu!!! I know it, yes it is Amuneke you want to insult, hoooo, uuu!!! Amuneke is loyal to Oga Eguavoen already and you can’t take that away from him so don’t bother throw that tantrum, as you can see, all of us here are now made to support our own SE, Emmanuel Dennis is with us, Samuel Kalu the 24 yrs old, young boy is with us. Don’t ever expect Amuneke to address any press briefing for those of you waiting to attack him. We are covering for him that I can assure. He will be the Technical Adviser which is the highest position very soon. We thank Amaju Pinnick for accepting Amuneke even they attack him as a failure, it is true they did. God bless NFF.
I know you just want to comment. Hahahaha Amuneke knows he is not even qualified to coach a senior team talk more. Technical Adviser ko, Adviser Technical ni.
Nff did very well to visit the players@Chidi, never mind them. I will jump am pass. Amuneke is a tactical technician that taught Nwakali, Iheanacho who is scoring goals in Leicester today from under 17 and they are senior men now. Must Amuneke speak with press abi media?
At times I just have to think critically before commenting cos I wouldn’t wanna disrespect or be rude to anybody here as we are all entitled to our opinions. Nigeria do not fit under that term developing country, Nigeria is a developed country with bad leadership settings which has been dragging the country backward for years. We are having a WC playoff , there is an interim, first,second and third coach and still half of the NFF board were on the plane to England to talk to players , please for what exactly? Please can you outline what impact that would have on the two matches? If you are saying the coach travelled to the UK to talk to some on the players that’s understandable, but the NFF officials? common man stop messing about, if there is a football related conferences holding in London and the NFF staff use the opportunity to hang out with the players in that city, that’s perfect, but travelling solely to go see the guys with all these officials then I want to know what these NFF have been smoking
Picnick should just stay away from this te and allow the coaches to do their jobs. R
Why is this guy jumping from one place to another, Os it because his name is Picnic ?The Super Falcons have an important match this Friday and i hope you plan to visit the team because we know where your interest lies.
Aside SE, e nff has other responsibilities, the Super falcons, falconet, u-23, U-17, U-20, CHAN, and others..
Next time, only Coach Eguavoen should be on such trip. He should send Amuneke to go scan for local players back home.
That’s true. Our domestic players need attention as well. Yusuf and Amuneke should tactically engage the local league. I need them to deligently assess MFM no9, Ramon. The lad is doing wonders.
19 year old Ramon ….lol.
The assistant coach has a lot to offer the domestic league. Remember he discovered Nwakali and we saw be he dazzled in cameroon. He is coming home.
Ramon is 24 yrs old. While Sikiru Olatubosun is no9. They are both very good and I think the assistant coach should have a look.
I don’t know why they are all rushing to meet our foreign Stars when we have U17 & u20 teams.
@Golden Child you have started again o. Against Ghana if Ighalo does well you come here and start singing his praises, If I expose you don’t talk o.. remember that was how I exposed you as regards your fake love on General Roah. Okay
If reports coming from England are true that NFF has the plan of talking to Micheal Olise and Eze once more, then the presence of Pinnick could be useful in that team. otherwise, he has no business being on that trip
Time to get IK Kyari. He is much around to get a Jersey.
With the calibre, IK should have known informant is no work na, is never going away. Being a football scout getting players for SE is freedom.
I was very happy when Egu met with the league players the other day. Well, we already know nothing wrong with meeting the foreign based but it doesn’t have to be a jamboree since Amaju, Sanusi and Eguavoen could have done that. The assistant coach should have stayed behind.
Why do you people so hate Amuneke? Is he the only person to have accepted the position of an assistant coach? Hissss!!! He must follow his Oga to Europe even to USA, fuul.