Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr says the team’s next two games against Seychelles and Egypt are opportunities for fringe players to stake claim for places in the squad ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, Completesports.com reports.
The three-time African champions who have already qualified for Egypt 2019 will take on the Pirates of Seychelles in their final qualifying match at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba on Friday.
Rohr’s men will then face the Pharaohs of Egypt in a friendly international next week Tuesday at the same venue.
The former Bordeaux of France coach has handed maiden invitation to the likes of Ikouwen Udoh, Valentine Ozornwafor, Paul Onuachu and Ndifreke Effiong for both games.
Rohr claims players still have the opportunity to fight for places in the team despite few months left before the start of the competition.
“We are already preparing for the AFCON but this is the last game of the qualifiers. So, it is a very important game,” Rohr told reporters at the Agege Stadium last Sunday.
“I want to see who can come to our team. We now have four local players; (Ndifreke) Effiong from Akwa United and (Ikouwen) Udoh, the captain of the Under20 team who played very well in Niamey in the last AFCON of Under 20.
“We also have (Ikechukwu) Ezenwa and Valentine (Ozornwafor), who is a tall left-footed defender. So it will be interesting to see the new players in at least one of the two games.
“So, it’s already a competition for our list for AFCON.”
The Super Eagles are making a return to the AFCON finals after missing out on a place in the last two editions of the competition.
By Adeboye Amosu
14 Comments
Nice one Mr coach
This is a good idea. Please extend your invitation to Aina who was thought to have been injured but now suspended after playing for the whole ninety minutes in Italy last weekend.
How i wish Iheanacho is listening. I guess his spot is one of those spots rohr is tactically “putting up for sale”. #LetsPray4Kele
Iheanacho need to wake bfor his place is been taking bcos trust me Anachu won’t miss this opportunity if he play on Friday and Tuesday… The guy is hammer… Let’s see how it goes
Good, make sure you extend ur invitation to my guy Igbekeme, probably one of our best box to box midfielder out there.Merit should the yardsticks for ur invitation not pressure from Agents or NFF officials.
Hehehehehe….we never sing incantation finish, oracle don begin talk….” make sure you extend ur invitation to my guy Igbekeme”…..now we see why some poeple just hate G.Rohr and will do anything to water down all his efforts even when results are there for all to see.
Igbekeme is good sir. Nothing wrong in clamouring for invitations of players. Super Eagles no be your sole property.
Love it or lump it.
Hehehehe…of course there’s no sin in clamoring for players invitation, but the sin is in bringing down other players just for yours to shine. No one’s candles get brighter by quenching other people’s own. A situation where “some people” call current players of the SE “Mediocre” while their own so-called “star/world class players aren’t even rated is laughable. I’ve heard so many laughable comparisons like, Musa mohd is “far better” Ola aina (yet the far better one cannot hasnt even been good enough for a league debut for his parent club in turkey wereas the one that is not “far better” is always one of the first names on the team sheet of Torino in the serie A), Isaac success is “far better” than ighalo (yet the “far better” one has not score 10 professional league goals in 5 seasons in the same clubs the not “far better” one painted red with goals while he was there), Mikel Agu is “far better” than Ndidi…..and many more insane schools of thought. LMAO.
Just like i said earlier, igbekeme is good, fine, he is a Nigerian is eligible too to don the green and white, fine, But the coach hasnt invited him yet for reasons best known to him….and unfortunately for you and your brothers, y’all cannot do jack about it. Super eagles is not your sole property too…..Love it or Lump it.
Now that you have put context into it, i understand sir.
Some members of this forum are just being unfair. I can’t imagine that the same person that saw nothing wrong in selecting a clubless o a B-team player as leader of a national team is the same person shutting down on a hardworking and regular player of a first team in spanish segunda not portuguese lowet league. Double standard! National team selection should be based on current form. Mr.Rohr, your job is to select and manage our best players for all tournaments. We need better goal-keepers. Prove me wrong by starting Ezenwa against Seychelles and the other goal keeper against Egypt. You kerp inviting defensive midfielders when it’s obvious that our team needs additional play-makers to support Alex. Do us a favor by resting Ndudi,Ighalo,Musa and Alex to allow us monitor other player in these two matches.
Dr Drey, common I thought u better than this, igbekeme is one our best box to box baller right now trust me, pls blame is non invitation on our poor scouting and bribe to play system. We can agree to disagree respectfully, the super Eagles belongs to us all,
Some members of this forum simply do not comprehend English. they can’t seem to tell between selecting a player for the national team and selecting a captain for the national team. Kindly go back and re-read that thread again. I put it to you once again that there’s no rule anywhere in the world that say the player playing the the best club in the world must captain the national team. even in our own dear SE….go and check history, we have had players who weren’t even attached to a club wearing the armband. It not a justification for inviting clubless players. Form is temporary, class is permanent. if you happen to have comprehension issues…..deal with it.
@Sunny,
so what you are trying to say is that the likes of Sam chukwueze, Semi Ajayi, Francis Uzoho, Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi, Paul Onauchu and some of the other players who have made debuts under Rohr bribed to get invitations to the national team….??? If that is it, then that’s pure fallacy. Oga, a gold fish has got no hiding place. None of us didn’t have to watch youtube to get a wind of the potentitials of some of these guys. whoever has to break into d current SE must have that X-factor that none of the rest have at d moment. Someone here hyped this same guy to the point of saying he’s the type of player we need to win the world cup, while calling others mediocre, and when asked to name his fantasy SE team, he didn’t even have the confidence to name him in his starting XI……lmao….than I just imagined why the hype if even the hyper doesn’t feel he’s good enough for a place on the pitch. Any player who is not good enough to walk into the SE starting eleven like chukwueze did should wait in the wings. there are still lots of fringe SE players that are struggling to even get enough international game time for us to rate them properly. The SE may be for all Nigerians, but if we stand on that premise to give every professional nigerian footballer an invite, we will never have a team. I’ve watched clips of this guy in question….he is good…not super. What X factor can he bring into the team that the likes of etebo, iwobi, agu, ndidi, Mikel, ajayi, ogu, Joel obi and the rest do not have…?
@Sunny,
so what you are trying to say is that the likes of Sam chukwueze, Semi Ajayi, Francis Uzoho, Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi, Paul Onauchu and some of the other players who have made debuts under Rohr bribed to get invitations to the national team….??? If that is it, then that’s pure fallacy. Oga, a gold fish has got no hiding place. None of us didn’t have to watch youtube to get a wind of the potentitials of some of these guys. whoever has to break into d current SE must have that X-factor that none of the rest have at d moment. Someone here hyped this same guy to the point of saying he’s the type of player we need to win the world cup, while calling others mediocre, and when asked to name his fantasy SE team, he didn’t even have the confidence to name him in his starting XI……lmao….than I just imagined why the hype if even the hyper doesn’t feel he’s good enough for a place on the pitch. Any player who is not good enough to walk into the SE starting eleven like chukwueze did should wait in the wings. there are still lots of fringe SE players that are struggling to even get enough international game time for us to rate them properly. The SE may be for all Nigerians, but if we stand on that premise to give every professional nigerian footballer an invite, we will never have a team. I’ve watched clips of this guy in question….he is good…not super. What X factor can he bring into the team that the likes of etebo, iwobi, agu, ndidi, Mikel, ajayi, ogu, Joel obi and the rest do not have…? I’m not against the invitation of any player to d national team, so far d coach feels he needs such player to help his ministry, but when some people now start making it look like our success or failure hangs on the invitation or non invitation of a certain player to the team, then that becomes a problem. and buy the way, how many times this season has this kid made the segunda division team of the week…….???? just asking…..