News Obiaks News

The new super eagle’s coach, Sunday Oliseh had submitted the list of players invited for the Tanzania-Nigeria clash to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF).  In the list, the Super Eagles’ coach had invited up to 8 professionals plying their trades in foreign lands for the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifier that is billed to take place in Dar es Salaam next month.  This was made known by the officials of the NFF to newsmen.  

The list consists of a number of regulars, like Joel Obi, Lukman Haruna, Rabiu Ibrahim, Kenneth Omeruo, Leon Balogun, Godfrey Oboabona and the first choice goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama.  The players are expected to arrive in camp about a  week prior to the encounter.

Aside the above players, some other players invited are Moses Simon, Sylvester Igboun, Emem Eduok, Izuna Ernest and Carl Ikeme, a goalkeeper. Aside the foreign based players, the coach had earlier invited 23 home based players for the encounter. According to the NFF officials, this list is a tentative one and modifications may be effected in the event any of the invited players could not show up for the match.  However, the team is expected to arrive at their Abuja camp on Monday, August 31, 2015. The coach had hinted that any player that failed to show up on that date should count himself out of the team.

Coach Oliseh desires to show Nigerians that he is worthy of this job and therefore hopes to achieve success in the encounter against Tanzania. He had earlier stated that he plans to develop a reliable football team for Nigeria and he had said the development process would take some time. However, a loss in this encounter may cast deep shadows on the country’s chances of participating in 2017 African Cup of Nations.

Many Nigerians have been voicing their opinions about the new team Oliseh plans to build and they have been warning against using an experimental team against Tanzania considering the importance of this match against Tanzania. There are expectations that a couple of the relatively unknown players and some of the home based players would be given opportunity to play as members of the team during the Tanzanian encounter, but there are also fears that the coach may rely solely on the foreign-based players alone. This would not be surprising, considering how very important this particular encounter is. A win in this game will brighten Nigeria’s chance of participating in the 2017 Nations Cup.       

THE FULL LIST

Goalkeepers: Vincent Enyeama (Lille OSC, France); Carl Ikeme (Wolverhampton Wanderers, England)

Defenders: Leon Balogun (FSV Mainz 05, Germany); Kingsley Madu (AS Trencin, Slovakia); Godfrey Oboabona (Caykur Rizespor, Turkey); William Troost Ekong (FK Haugesund, Norway); Kenneth Omeruo (Kasimpasa SK, Turkey)

Midfielders: Joel Obi (Torina FC, Italy); Izunna Ernest Uzochukwu (FC Amkar Perm, Russia); Obiora Nwankwo (Coimbra FC, Portugal); Lukman Haruna (Anzhi Machatsjkala, Russia); Rabiu Ibrahim (AS Trencin, Slovakia)

Forwards: Ahmed Musa (CSKA Moscow, Russia); Emem Eduok (Esperance ST, Tunisia); Emmanuel Emenike (Al Ain, UAE); Anthony Ujah (Werder Bremen, Germany); Sylvester Igboun (FC UFA, Russia); Moses Simon (KAA Gent, Belgium).

By Anthony Olawale Ojo