Former Nigeria international Etim Esin has berated the Super Eagles stars for lacking the desire and patriotism of Ghanaian players.
Esin stated this after the Black Stars of Ghana narrowly lost 3-2 to Portugal in their opening Qatar 2022 World Cup game on Thursday.
Before heading to Qatar, Portugal thrashed the Super Eagles 4-0 in their final warm up game in Lisbon.
But the Portuguese had to dig deep to see off a spirited Ghanian side.
And Esin posited that players of the Super Eagles don’t give their all when on duty for the national team.
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“Kudos to players of the Black Stars for their performance against Portugal,” Esin said on Brila FM.
“They really tried because it is not easy to score against a side like Portugal especially with the caliber players players they parade. But the same cannot be said of the Super Eagles players, the Ghanaian players are ready to die wearing their jersey but ours when they play it is as if they don’t want to get injured.
“For me the Super Eagles players lack the desire and patriotism of the Ghanaian players because we saw how they fared against Portugal if not for one or two mistakes and Cristiano Ronaldo’s experience in helping his side get a penalty.”
17 Comments
This was exactly what I told a Great man when he asked why Nigeria football is yet to hit major heights of late despite all the talents at disposal. Nigeria players on national assignment are different from what we experience on club level. They only come to party when they know money is on ground. Money is good but players must remember that fans are first, not forgetting the mammoth amount they earn week in and out yet they come to national team acting like the peanuts NFF is stealing from them is what will change their lives. Now we didn’t make it to WC their CV will also suffer just like we the fans. Players must sit must sit up when wearing the Green white henceforth or face the music by fans. As for NFF God is working on their Judgement Rev20:13!
Pls, get your judgment right. That we didn’t qualify for the wc was the fault of the nff and some wicked folks here and outside including you. Don’t come here and pretend as if i never knew what happened. Enjoy the ride bro like i always told when the going was manageable and good.
Great talk my brother. Se na today dem dey owe them money. But yet they still play with passion. We knew how back in the days players will threaten to boycott games, even at the 1994 world cup we heard how Westerhof when to persuade his players when there allowances were not being paid. And yet they still give us positive result. If they are losing because there allowances and bonus then they are saboteurs.
Silly people, they are owing the players bonuses from as far back as 2019/2020 and yet they want the players to show desire and patriotism.
Has the country shown desire and patriotism towards the players…? Did the country pay their medical bills when they got injured on national duty..?
Wonderful people.
Don’t worry. They wouldn’t only show Desire, they will also show Oparanozie.
And talking about desire and patriotism…..Etim Esin is the least person to talk about that as regards our national team.
My man Dr.drey longest time hope all is well with you.God bless you bro
Thank you. The ordinary worker should show a desire for labour while those in government should only show a desire in sharing our common wealth amongst themselves. Legislators refuse to pay lecturers but steal our money to send their children abroad: Patriotism No. 1.
Our hospitals are high risk environments. Yet people in government fly abroad for traetment of boils: Patriotism No. 2
And so forth. . . Every ex-international speaks down on us. Patriotism or rudeness or not knowing one’s place.
@Kanga all the complains have been going on for years and have the leaders change??? If we continue waiting for Satan to repent then we will all be waiting until rapture takes place this is exactly what’s happening and should the players continue in this path then our football culture is heading for oblivion. A word is enough for the wise because this new trend will only lead us no where and continuous embarrassment to fans after national team disaster. The best way to protest is boycott and not come and play matches like pregnant women.
Nigeria our problem is we tackle issues in the wrong manner and fans encourage the players to continue this way. Total Boycott and restructure is the way to go if you can not come and give your best when we know how much you give to your clubsides week in and out. A boycott and ban from FIFA for period of time so that this demons in the NFF will have no business until restructure is done is far better than all this endless complains. Let us be wise and not continue praising the wrong way of doing for we the fans to suffer insults from nations that can not even lace our boot.
@ Chima Samuel, you made very valid point there, in as much as I totally understand the angle the other contributors are coming from.
These players are so well paid. They have to start understanding the meaning of national pride, the meaning of using their God given talent to selflessly bring joy to millions, suffering already under criminals in position of power.
We are not asking for money from them but fight to lift up our national pride everytime they are on the pitch. Any player, going forward who isn’t willing, we don’t have any problem with such, should please be honest to stay away and let those that understands they play to BRING JOY TO THE ALREADY BBRUISED, DEPRIVED POPULACE, wear the national jersey/colour.
I understand Nigerians easily forget those selfless hero but the satisfaction of been selfless especially in the case where majority of the players are so well paid, CAN NEVER BE MATCHED BY ANY AMOUNT OF BONUS. Anyway Etim or any of our so called ex internationals are definitely not the ones to speak on this. MAYBE WE CAN CALL UP SAM OKWARAJI’S SPIRIT TO TELL OUR SE PLAYERS.
Exactly watching Arab nations and a few less rated team play with so much passion and seeing how we Nigerians are made laughing stock on the internet makes you wonder which way. We can continue waiting for crazy leaders to change and wait for ever like it’s today that NFF started this attitude. I witnessed how Ghanaians boycotted their national team to mend themselves and only came back when they made it to final WQ playoff, this is the way to go if players don’t commit or boycott nonsense. If you continue hailing them they’ll just be using us for nonsense, and on holidays be doing their Sex parties. Nigeria players of today if you’re close to them you’ll understand that only a few like Aribo, Iwobi and Bassey cares and if we notice these aforementioned players were not raised in Nigeria. The naija bred kids are something else when it comes to money and the earlier we note this the better for us. As fans since we know NFF and players are not on good terms let us not expect anything and neither should we be hyping or praising the game in the country when we know that there’s a major problem to fix before we can expect consistency and the real results our talents can bring. I leave in peace!
If we don’t expect Satan to change then why should God also change to evil . I read from a reliable source that those players intentionally played bad against Portugal that even they never wanted to honor that match if not for Peserio intervention. The players felt betrayed by Picknic who refused to pay them their entitlement since 2019.
Ask Etim Esin where his patriotism got him . Don’t blame the players you. They can not be sweating blood on the field and one useless person spends their money on rubbish desires.
I agree with the suggestion that henceforth they should boycott matches and do it glaringly so that all concerned Nigerians will add their voices instead of disgracing the national team.
That is what we are saying let the players boycott instead of playing and losing heavily due to low morale. Losing makes the fans suffer and insults all over the place. If you’re outside Nigeria you meet foreigners who say lots of trash and even look down of your nation because of football. It’s disgusting and what about Twitter meltdown??? These players should boycott and help us avoid this embarrassment. Basketball that was giving joy was ban and football that is bringing disgrace was kept. Nigeria is a strange country if you ask me.
Look at NFF hiring nonsense coaches that will agree to share salary with them, whilst other nations are going for sound coaches. The players should boycott and stop this nonsense. Venezuela that is not even good in football will tell you what to expect from this coach that made them go on winless streak in 11 matches. Let’s not talk about Rohr because there are sound coaches that will make us play well and win matches like Renard that we couldn’t woe due to our corruption or Quiorez of Iran after he left Morroco. But we always end up with nonsense coaches that will agree to share money or indebted. Just today if you read you’ll see the new NFF president visiting CBN Governor, ask yourself for what??? Only the president is financial manager, secretary and director and we expect what? The players knows what to do to spare us further embarrassment if they will not give their best as a result of the ongoing corruption.
I read this article and couldn’t agree less with the below point….
“The former Nantes midfielder pointed out that the problem can be traced to African players trading their inventiveness for tactical awareness acquired at the European clubs.
On his official Twitter handle, Faty wrote (translated from French) just before Ghana clashed with Portugal: “While waiting for the Ghana match: generally disappointed with the African teams on this 1st day.
We are far from those teams that we have known in the past (Nigeria 94-98, Senegal 02 or even Ghana 10) which brought ‘madness’ with exciting players like Jay Jay (Okocha) or Diouf”….
The above gives a sense of Africa being colonize again football wise. Africa talents are ever now losing the AFRICAN FOOTBALL IDENTITY while struggling to transform n measure up with the European style; making the whole thing quite confusing, as it concerns reaching the much desired height. In this situation, Europe will always triumph, as they are the originator of the system we copy.
If South Africa continue with what they are doing with their league, where majority of their players remain in their very viable league and maybe just add some professionalism in their game, they will rule Africa in the not too distant future. We can see that coming already with their female teams.
Seriously, super Eagles got done up period, dat does not mean they are bad team. As for da man with a short memory, l can recall his days as a player, his generation, he was a waste of talent !!
You guys are always swimming in the ocean of blames, you all blame coaches, players and sometimes Nff. What is happening to our football is the failure of Nigeria as a country to stick to the development of football from school system that was handed over to us by the colonialists. The United States pick their talents from their school system, all sports are developed from primary to university level ,name them, American football, volleyball, basketball, baseball etc. Senegal used to be one of the weakest teams in West Africa but today they are African Number one and it has been so for a very long time. What did they do? All we need to do as a Nation is go back to the basics otherwise the blame game will continue forever, i pray Benin, Togo , Niger etc will not start stopping Nigeria from qualifing for Afcon and World Cup.
There are tow things we were beaten by portugal, frist: we as Super Eagles haven’t a pattern of play especially defensive style as I have said more and more before with a wrong tactic by Peseiro, second: the change of SE line-up just as put Oseyi- Samuel instead of Awaziem or Ebuehi who have more experience than him, putting old players like William Troost who is shaky and weak player.Osayi Samuel with Ekong were hole on SE defence also Bruno Oneymaechi so did because he hasn’t any experience on international duty.So Peseiro must put strong defensive pattern of play , he must recall Alhassan Ibrahim, Anderson Esiti than to recall Etebo and Onyeka , he must recall Victor Boniface if Osimhen is absent, he must recall from NPFL, Ndidi was bad because he came from injury; the tactic also which Peseiro put is so wrong he played with 3-4-3 SE didn’t usted to play with this tactic, they play with 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 which Rhor has been playing with it or 3-5-2 but the tactic which Peseiro has put cost us beating with 4 goals.