Imoh Ezekiel scored his first goal in his debut for Al-Jaziri who defeated Baniyas 3-1 away in the UAE league on Tuesday night, Completesports.com reports.
Ezekiel was introduced in the 79th minute and scored in the 89th minute to make it 3-1.
Ali Ahmed Mabkhout scored two goals for Al-Jaziri while Joao Pedro scored Baniyas goal on 71 minutes.
Also Read: Nigerian Midfielder, Awua: ‘My Time For Greatness Will Come – Cittadella A Winning Team’
It was Al-Jaziri’s second league win after four games which place them in fourth position on eight points.
Ezekiel joined Al-Jaziri from Belgian Jupiler club Kortrijk during the transfer window.
By James Agberebi
7 Comments
_ Ezekiel: the lost Super Eagle _
1 capped Super Eagle Imoh Ezekiel made an instant impact upon his return to the Middle East by finding the back of the net on his debut for Al Jaziri having been introduced in 71 minutes against FC Baniyas.
The match ended 3:1 in favour of Ezekiel’s club.
Having transferred from Belgium club Kortrijk in the latest transfer window, this will be Ezekiel’s second stint in the Middle East having kitted for Qatari club Al-Arabi in 2014 after transferring from another Belgium outfit Standard Liège.
For me, that was where Ezekiel’s decline as a serious minded footballer began.
The 27 year old striker is one of those players that many fans argue to this day should have been included in Late Stephen Keshi’s squads.
And it is difficult to argue against this position.
Between 2012 and 2014, Ezekiel scored an astonishing 32 goals in 93 games for Standard Liege in the Belgian League; and these goals were a beauty to behold.
In short, for that period, Ezekiel – who was simply too hot to handle and too cold to hold in the Belgian League – was only given a few minutes by Keshi in a friendly against Mexico after coming on as a second half substitute to replace Victor Moses in March 2014.
I believe Ezekiel had all the makings to develop into a player like Algeria’s Riyadh Mahrez had he been prudent with his choice of clubs after leaving Liege.
However, rather than seek continuous development as a footballer, he elected to go to Qatar at the ripe young age of 21.
This news shocked the football world at the time but a lot of people believed that he chose to enrich his pocket instead of advancing his career.
“Is it not to better his life financially as well as improve as a player? So anybody that says my player (Ezekiel) signed for Al Arabi because of the financial incentives, such person or persons is not far from the truth,” said Gafar Liameed (the coach of Standard Liege at the time).
Unfortunately, Ezekiel might have profited financially, but his career suffered badly as a result of moving to Al-Arabi. His goals and overall productivity diminished after returning to Europe culminating in Kortrijk terminating his contract at the end of last season.
For a player that should still be an active Super Eagles International, he is now nowhere near attracting national team invitation.
So, was I surprised that he opened in account for Al-Jaziri? No, the potentials have always been there.
But I think he initially went to the Middle East at the most ill-advised period of his football career. This, I believe terminally harmed his progression as a footballer of repute.
I think the move was done yes to enrich his pockets but also as his botched Tottenham deal due to reasons that don’t sit well with me until today was also a key factor in his decision to move to Qatar. So in light of this I personally don’t blame him.
You see Back in 2014 Ezekiel Imoh was our most promising talent and he was Causing Havoc in Standard de Liege as you rightly stated @Deo. Subsequently catching the attention of Tottenham Hotspur during that period. This all coincided with England introducing strict regulations to combat the influx of Foreign Non English Players, with the exception of foreign based players with “special talent” as they put it needing international experience (minimum 8 national team caps) in order bypass this strict rule.
So world cup 2014 would have offered Ezekiel Imoh the 8 international Caps to be eligible to sign for Tottenham had he been selected to Keshi managed Eagles at the time…Looking back now because if you take the build up games we played that year Leading up to the World cup, Togo USA Greece and one more team I can’t remember and the 4 games we played at the World Cup that was 8 games. However, he needed to be selected to the National team, sadly though this was in the height of Player Agents bribing National officials and needless to say Michael Babatunde and co found themselves on the plane to the World Cup 2014 and more deserving players like ezekial Imoh were overlooked. Needless to say because of the Botched Tottemham Hotspur Move Ezekiel Imoh Chose Qatar For Money and his quality dwindled. If you look at the Olyimpics he played a few years later (Rio 2016 dream team) his quality had already dropped by then and he was somewhat a shadow of his former self.
So yes the sad story of Ezekiel Imoh’s Story was a ripple effect of corruption in our football which also coincided with our missing out of 2 consecutive Nation s Cup tournaments. SO yes this is why corruption in football is bad it affects all aspects bros
Stephen Keshi was not a moral example for African coaches… He had money issues with Emmanuel Adebayor and Saidu Keita of Togo and Mali respectively.
Indeed bro @JimmyBallNon the less. he is one of our own and we appreciate his contributions, may his soul continue to rest in the bosom of the lord.
Now Keshi is dead and gone…
Now we have Rohr, if everybody now agrees that Keshi was influenced by NFF in terms of player invitation/selection, now behold a man in the shape of Rohr that cares not about sentiment, bribery and corruption, why can’t we support Rohr to use all his skills and arsenal to kill this deadly disease that has benn lingering in our football system for over decades now?
Why should we join those old men that has nothing to offer rather than eating our money in destroying our football system….
See what is going on in our country, untill the youth rise up to shake those politician b4 they now think of doing things favouralbe to the youth….
If we don’t raise alarm and stop all this evil plot of theirs, these greedy men will kill our football system….
They’re the ones enjoying while we’re supporting them blindly…
Let’s all grow up and refute those theirs claims of inviting below average players to our national team…..
The right time is now else me and u will face it.
@UBFE I stand with you brother! those corrupt politicians won’t ruin our football system as they have done to the national league! this is so bad, one ex-international of sort is advancing the notion of including home base players that are yet to kick a soccer ball professionally for over 7 months. this is where they hope to make money from. with players (that lie about their age, can’t get to quarter finals of caf championship) to bribe their way into the quota slot. even the ezenwa that was put in the stand by list created a lot of stir among super eagles loyals (not rohr loyals). why? it is obvious that rohr’s hand was forced to bringing the guy ahead of the one he personally praised.
to all super eagles fans, I don’t care whether you hate Rohr or not, this one thing you can’t deny – Super Eagles has improved since the gaffer took over! we’re about to qualify for our third major tournament with games to spare and as someone once said in this forum :”he has forgotten using the calculator”! this I agree. why should we fight amongst ourselves? a house divided among itself cannot (the Lord Jesus said this!).
nff and every corrupt stakeholders and every greedy politicians are already doing enough damage to our beloved Super Eagles, don’t we see that if we don’t stand behind rohr and his decisions (as long as he is making progress) we will be the losers? the people that are managing the national league, what have they done with it? if they can ruin the national league that bad because of their belly imagine what they would do to the whole football system if they get their way. for example, why do you think David alaba don’t play for us? the guy till today still shows love for Nigeria. go check it up, and you will find what corruption made us lose! what a talent does alaba have, only God knows how history would have been different had he chosen to play for Super Eagles!
greed won’t see the end of our football!! Say No To Football Corruption! repost or show support and solidarity if you are a true Super Eagles fan! Super Eagles all the way!
@Kingston I stand with you on that bros!!