Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, has defended his decision to overlook the players who feature in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), insisting that Nigeria’s best players are base4d in Europe.
Rohr only called up FC Ifeanyi Ubah goalkeeper, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, for the Eagles London camp sparking a clamour for the inclusion of more players who are based at home.
However, the experienced Franco-German coach has now passed a damning verdict on where Nigeria’s best players are based.
“Our best players are playing in Europe,” Rohr said.
“Senegal, who we played against in London had no local player. The big teams don’t have local players.”
The Eagles coach will, however, offer the home-based players a chance in the CHAN Eagles and also said he will be in Nigeria next week to watch some league matches with the hope of scouting more players for the national team.
“Next week I will be in Nigeria to see some games, I have watched some league games already, but the players there are not better than what we already have,” he said.
“The quality of the clubs could be seen from the African competitions where Wikki Tourists and FC Ifeanyi Ubah crashed out of the CAF Confederation Cup, while Rangers and Rivers United exited the Champions league”.
“The local players will feature in the CHAN,. We will see them there”, Rohr emphasized.
In a related news, New Super Eagles call-up Tyronne Ebuehi may have to do more to convince the technical crew that he merits the teams’ first team shirt.
In the assessment of the Gernot Rhr and his crew, Ebuehi is a good player but not aggressive enough to mix it up in African football.
Ebuehi was part of the squad for the Eagles training camp in London after he initially turned down a chance to feature for Nigeria saying he would rather focus on his Dutch club ADO Den Haag.
“Tyronne is not a bad player, but he needs to be a bit more physical to play the games that we are destine to play especially against a team like Cameroon,” one top team official exclusively informed SCORENigeria
Ebuehi, who was born in the Netherlands, has yet to debut for Nigeria at full international level.
This season, the 21-year-old right fullback has played 20 games and scored a goal for his modest Dutch club, Ado Den Haag.