Former Nigeria national team coach Christian Chukwu says that players in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) should not be neglected by the Super Eagles, or they will continue to go away from the country in masse.
Chukwu argues that most players who emerge in the NPFL take the first danger to leave the local league, believing that they need to be based foreign places to get a shot at playing for the Super Eagles.
Current Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr has been over and over accused of ignoring locally-based players when making up his squads, and Chukwu’s phrases solely add further weight to the debate.
“One of the matters spoiling our league these days is that you see a participant in a league match today, and tomorrow, if he is called to play for a club in Afghanistan, the place they are conflict war, he will go. He believes that if he doesn’t go, he can never have the chance to play for the Super Eagles,” Chukwu told The Guardian.
“I still trust we have very right players in the NPFL, if only the coach can stay in Nigeria and start coaching with them. The positions he finds deficient, he can then invite the foreign-based players to fill such because this is how it used to be performed in those days.”
He added, “A state of affairs the place you regulate the invitation of the NPFL gamers to the countrywide camp, but invite the foreign-based players liberally, is discouraging. This certainly will make the league not go properly and even the players again in home now not displaying the confidence to play at home again.
“This is why some players will go to Benin Republic, Ghana and so on to additionally end up foreign-based players. Though I see our current team as being very strong, it additionally has to be a mixture of the appropriate ones from the domestic league.”
