The Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr, has responded to criticism in some quarters over his insistence on using Nigerian players born abroad to solve the issues of the team, instead of targeting home-based players.
Rohr has been busy holding meetings with players of Nigerian heritage born abroad to switch allegiance to Nigeria, as some of them are already youth internationals for the countries of their birth.
However, it has not gone down well with some section of fans of the Super Eagles who are of the opinion that the coach is sidelining players based in Nigeria in his plans to take the Super Eagles to their rightful place in Africa and the World.
“Since taking over the team, we have always considered the players based at home in our call-ups, we believe they can compete for shirts in the team. But the league is on break now, so we have to focus on those we don’t want to lose to other countries”, Rohr said.
“It’s easier to monitor players based abroad than those in Nigeria but that is why I have my assistants, Salisu Yusuf and Imama Amakapabo, they are to ensure we get the best players called-up since they are familiar with the terrain.
“The players based in Nigeria will prosecute the friendly against Egypt, from there we could see some who are going to be part of our squad going forward but they are part of our plans,” he said.