Soccer / african cup of nations

The 33rd African Cup of Nations, the continental show piece event for the best of African teams is days away and as such the teams involved have begun listing their squad of 28 players to prosecute this business. Our focus is on the most populous country in Africa and a true African footballing giant– Nigeria and it's national team,nicknamed the Super Eagles. Only today they have announced their squad for the tournament comencing on the 9th of January. A couple of weeks back Gernet Rohr, the man who qualified the team for this Nations Cup was sacked. A lot of Nigerians had become increasingly frustrated by his dull and predictable team selections, selections that keeps players in their comfort zones, since there are hardly any new faces to stake a claim for their shirts, year in year out. Yet this is Nigeria, a country from my extensive studies, that has the most footballing talents in all of the world, it's the lack of proper management of players from grassroot level especially, that hinders the emergence of a good number ; even so there is an embarrassment of choices(world class players) for each position on the field. The team is now being handled,in a caretaker role, by Mr. Austin Eguavoen, a former Captain of the Super Eagles and his first job is to lead the team to the Nations Cup to be hosted by Cameroon. Having only taken over this month, his squad selection has been generally hailed by Nigerians as being progressive and refreshing, a proper departure from the ways of the Franco-German, Gernet Rohr who became the longest serving Nigerian coach in history,appointed in 2016. Mr. Eguavoen brings back the midfield technocrat in Kelechi Nwakali, a kind of player Nigeria has not had for years now. A hugely creative midfielder with an eye for goal and truly embodies the Nigerian heart of passion, flair,strength and inner drive. He played for the Nigerian B team in exhibition games against Atletico Madrid and Liberia in 2018, but surprisingly is yet to make his senior squad debut. This is a player who captained the Nigerian side in the 2015 U-17 World Cup and he led them to win the title, whilst he won the Golden Ball Award. Arsenal quickly bought him after that World Cup and he now plays in Spain. He hasn't declined till today, but one wonders what Rohr is thinking at times. Sadiq Umar, a striker and another star in one of Nigeria's age grade World Cup glorious campaigns, is back. He is banging in goals in Spain. Others are the defender Olisah Ndah and Taiwo Awoniyi- a dangerous goal scorer who ably represented Nigeria at the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, which Nigerian won and he scored four goals during the competition. He also represented Nigeria at the 2015 African U-20 Championship in Senegal, where Nigeria came out with top honours. Liverpool quickly bought him after those heroics and today he is in Germany breaking records consistently for his club. It must be noted that the provisional list had been submitted to CAF since November by Rohr and these players' names were not there. So it took quite a process for the coach to submit a request to CAF, through the Nigerian Football Federation, to change things before this his final squad was released. Kudos to the boldness of Coach Eguavoen. Happy Christmas. Cheers