By Sharon Ekhiwere
The Nigeria Football Fund (TNFF) and GTI Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Andrew Ekejiuba, has expressed his disappointment with the lack of outfield players in the super eagles squad list for the 2023 AFCON because he believes the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has quality players, platinumnewsng.com is reporting.
He made this remark on Friday while answering questions from Veteran sports presenter Emmanuel Bassey during a Radio Sports show on Raypower FM. He said he believes Nigeria has never lacked talents, but just the right managers who can painstakingly look inwards and get the kind of players who can play for the national team from the NPFL.
He also referred to the recently concluded CAF awards Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala who both won the men and women African Players of the Year, respectively. According to him, both players started in Nigeria.
“We have the quality players. It’s just that painstaking action and attitude which is lacking in the management of our senior national team. Going to the AFCON with just a goalkeeper from the league is not good enough, we have quality players. Remember the players who scored 5 goals for Kano Pillars (Yusuf Abdullahi), a few weeks ago, we have quality players, it’s just that the managers don’t want to do the right thing.”
“What the players need is little exposure. African football is not cosmetic football. When it comes to AFCON, it’s a very different ball game, some of these foreign-based players cannot withstand the pressure of African football.”