The lack of trust and consideration of home based players in Nigeria for the super eagles increased drastically after the Algeria 1990 afcon tournament,as we all know that coach clemen westerhof tried calling foreign based players for Algeria 1990 afcon, but only three of the foreign based players decided to go for the afcon tournament,these players are defender Andrew uwe (ksv Roesoder, Belgium), striker late Rashidi Yekini (Africa sports, Abidjan) and Friday Elaho (Brondby, Denmark), with other foreign based players citing club engagement as their reason for not reporting to camp. After a great performance at the Algeria 1990 afcon which we won silver medal, most of the home based players who played at that tournament made moves to foreign club sides, which I will say was were the consideration of home based players to execute major tournaments reduced drastically.
In Senegal 1992 afcon tournament the number of home based players invited to execute the tournament were only 6 out of a 21 man squad and I can say for a fact that it has been the highest number of home based players invited to the super eagles camp to execute a major tournament from 1992 till date. The closest number of home based players invited to execute a major tournament was in South Africa 2013 afcon tournament were late coach Stephen keshi invited 5 home based players out of a 23 man squad to execute the tournament. The highest number of Nigeria home based players invited to a FIFA world cup tournament was in Brazil 2014 FIFA world cup were late coach Stephen keshi took 4 home based players to execute the tournament.
The super eagles of Nigeria has only had 7 home based players make appearance in her 6 FIFA world cup outings with 4 of those home based players been second or third choice goalkeepers going into the FIFA world cup tournament.
Unfortunately this rush for foreign based players has aided in reducing the value of Nigeria leagues from the Npfl to the Nnl and to grassroot football in Nigeria.
Comments