New Telegraph

NFF and coaches’ penchant for ‘foreign’ Eagles

The composition of the players in the team in the past was largely made up of domestic league players. That was when the league and the Football Association (FA) Cup were very hot with huge following and fanbase across the country.

The team that won the country’s first continental football title, the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980, was 100 per cent home-based in top teams like Rangers International of Enugu and Shooting Stars of Ibadan. But gradually, with exposure, players started moving abroad to ply their trade in foreign clubs. There is however a big difference between the players who grew up in Nigeria to play abroad and those who were born abroad and they grew up there.

In the modern era, since the senior national team became the Green Eagles, John Chidozie and Tunji Banjo were the first two players born abroad who featured for the then Green Eagles. On July 12 1980, Chidozie and Banjo were in the Eagles squad that faced the senior national team of Tunisia in a decisive World Cup qualifier.

The Eagles, under the tutelage of coach Otto Gloria, were two goals down from the first leg match and the Nigerian team with inspiration from the professionals won 2-0 with goals from late Muda Lawal and Leotis Boateng to set up a penalty shoot-out which the Eagles also won to qualify. On Dec 6, 1980, the Eagles played against the national team of Tanzania with the two ‘foreign’ Eagles on parade and the match ended 1-1 in Lagos.

In the return leg, Chidozie became the first foreign export to score for Nigeria in the 2-0 away win in which another foreign import, Christian Nwokocha, also hit the target. That was a period when the technical crew was cautiously injecting these players to boost the Eagles for results.

It was also a time the domestic league was very solid and well managed in all aspects. When the list of players for the Nigeria – Sierra Leone back-to-back games for the Cameroon 2022 Africa Cup of Nations was released, the number of ‘foreign’ Eagles on the list was alarming. A large percentage of the players were born abroad with foreign backgrounds.

Two of the three goalkeepers were ‘foreign’ Eagles, and a chunk of the defenders, midfielders and strikers invited were also players born abroad with Nigerian origin. Some of them are Sebastian Osigwe (FC Lugano, Switzerland), Maduka Okoye (Sparta Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Leon Balogun (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), William Ekong (Watford FC, England), Olaoluwa Aina, (Fulham FC, England), Oluwasemilogo Ajayi (West Bromwich Albion, England), Kevin Akpoguma (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Germany) Tyronne Ebuehi (FC Twente, Netherlands), Joseph Ayodele-Aribo (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland) and Alex Iwobi (Everton FC, England).

In the match, Nigeria threw away four-goal lead to draw a lowly rated Sierra Leone 4-4. The return leg also ended 0-0. The cohesion and mental toughness were missing. Of course many argued that these players are also Nigerians which is correct but the mentality is very different from players born and raised in the country.

The mental toughness, aggression and the ‘never give up‘ Nigerian spirit is not in these foreign Eagles. During the week, a former international, Ifeanyi Udeze, on a radio programme said the number of these players should not be more than three or four in the national team. “We need players with the African physique because the team will have to play tough games before making in to the world Cup or Nations Cup finals.

Against Sierra Leone, we all saw the lapses. Coach Gernot Rohr must make amends fast,” he said. There are so many talented players in the leagues abroad who grew up in the country and can stand the test of time at any time in any competition but it is strange that Rohr and the Nigeria Football Federation now have this penchant for injecting players born abroad into the Eagles.

It is not helping matters. They feel like fish out of water on the continent and most of the competitive matches of the team take place in Africa. Sad enough, coaches in the age-grade cadre are also following this trend and it is affecting the country’s pedigree in the U-17 and U-20 cadre. If we cannot bring out players from the academies, grassroots and the schools for the age grade, we need not compete at all. It simply means the federation is not developing the game if there should be reliance of foreignborn players for the age-grade teams. Enough is enough!

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