If u miss this opportunity another may not come o... Remenber say na footbal age you dey use... Make hay while sun shines o... I don talk...

momodub: “He (Oboabona) has passed that level having played for the national team and especially playing a major role in winning the African cup. Trials are meant for players who have not established themselves at that level. I am not sure that Wenger would ask any South American player featuring in his national team to go through trials.”
MAKE he sit for sunshine club ooo

Can someone tell me how well did Sunshine whatever they called performed in the Nigeria league? Actually and personally if Oboabona was in a team that wins the African Champions League I might have taken him serious but Nations Cup? Zambia won it with 22 home base players (one playing in Swiss league), despite winning the Nations Cup you dont see managers rushing to buy players from the former African champions. Why? its a cup competition, managers want to see you week in week out!

Sunshine finished fifth a team that lost 14 times as they say "the league doesnt lie" anything could happen in a cup competition.

Forza p: Ikpeba is so dumb!! i go wit adepoju on dis,after is performance @ d afcon nd even holdin down drogba(wich arsenal defender can hold him?)& played well against d lyks of cavani,suarez yet arsenal wants him on trial WTF is dat?na so arsenal gud reach?if dey want 2 test him why nt sign him nd loan him sumwhere else?God punish trials!

ALBA mopped the floor with him jhor

Fadelex: because you win nations cup, u don rise above trials, how dare you compare south America league wit Africa? south America teams beat their European counterparts in world cup (Sao Paulo beat Liverpool in 04, while Corinthians beat Chelsea last year) and u want to compare it with 67-0 and 79-0.... oboabona shld swallow his pride, he's not better than yaya toure.... that Bernard traore @ Chelsea is full international for Burkina Faso and he's still under trial

n TP mazembe still beat d same south american champion in 2010 so wats ur point?

Most of you guys dissing Godfrey here can not find your way round a football field even with a map in hand. This is a man who has benched our so called "exposed" foreign pros & plays REGULARLY for his club.

bjjbam: Why would Arsena Wenger offer an established international a trial? He did thesame thing with Zlatan and he turned him down. [b]The likes of Squllaci, Djourou etc are they better than Oboabona? W[/b]enger should go Bleep himself...

They have been sold. and Oboabona is substandard

luvable sam: n TP mazembe still beat d same south american champion in 2010 so wats ur point?

Exactly!! Atleast TP mazembe are former African Champions League winner, Sunshine is nothing in the Nigerian League

sambroose: The guy na flop jor.........you need to see how Jodi Alba destroyed the guy in the Confederation Cup

you nid to watch what i.k uche did for Cannavaro after he won ballon D'or.tell me a defender dt has never bn dribbled

Oboabona is not even superb. If we are talking about Omeruo now, i may express a contrary view, but Oboabona? Wenger himself deserves to be lashed for calling him up for trials in the first place

Does he expect Arsenal to sign him after a few AFCON games or come and scout him at Sunshine Stars from England? Even QPR will invite him for a trial.

If you know you are way above trials,wait for BARCA,afterall Arsenal are a 'BIG' club.And in one of your comments,you said Barca paid huge on an untested Neymar(in Europe)...wait Barca are coming for you.Pray you dont regret this one day...

This is not about Sunshine stars or the Nigerian league. This is about the Oboagbona and the heights he has attained in a very short time. How can someone who plays first team football for Nigeria be invited for trials. This guy won the nations cup and also featured at the confederation cup. That was enough for any coach to assess his abilities. It's either he's good enough or he's not. Don't insult him biko.

Afam4eva: This is not about Sunshine stars or the Nigerian league. This is about the Oboagbona and the heights he has attained in a very short time. How can someone who plays first team football for Nigeria be invited for trials. This guy won the nations cup and also featured at the confederation cup. That was enough for any coach to assess his abilities. It's either he's good enough or he's not. Don't insult him biko.

All the Home Based Burkina Faso players that won the AFCON 2 years ago should be playing in Barcelona, Madrid and so on then

gbawẹ́e:

All the Home Based Burkina Faso players that won the AFCON 2 years ago should be playing in Barcelona, Madrid and so on then

This applies to players from country will some football pedigree. Trials are meant for players that have not proven themselves at the international stage. Oboagbona did that at the Nations cup and at the confederations cup. We're no saying he's the best Player there is, but he needs to be accorded some respect in his own right as a relatively established footballer for his country.

Quoting Victor Ikpeba

"...I know Wenger has a lot of respect for African players.”

Apart from Gervinho, how many other African players play for Arsenal? In case you do not know,
every black player on that team is from France.

gbawẹ́e:
Wilson Palacios was a regular with the Honduran National team before he was called up for a trial with Arsenal. Wenger was impressed but yet not impressed enough.he then called up Steve Bruce who was coach of Birmingham to sign the boy up. The boy had a good season with them and from then played a pivotal role for Tottenham Hotspurs and now, he is an integral member of the Stoke City team.
Till today, he say he owes his success in England to Arsene Wenger who called him up for trials, saw his talent and offered him to other clubs.

Oboabona is just an arrogant, ego-bloated, deluded, hopelessly over-rated player.

he would regret this one day

Why are you cursing the guy out when he has not even really said anything. Read all the quotes again, there is no where he has stated categorically about Arsenal.

What these journo's have done to sell their papers is to quote the chap out of context, capitalise on the fact that the world is filled with people who read without reason.

Fact is, there has been no interest from Arsenal for Oboabona. If you've been following Arsenal well enough you will know what is true when you hear it. No quotes from any credible Arsenal source. Most quotes were lifted from his interview with MTN football.

Secondly, getting a work permit may be an issue for him.

Thirdly, he will not start ahead of Koscielny, Per Mertasacker or Vermaelen. Except he wants to go and warm the bench. Managers have established favourites and so of what use is buying a 30 years old bench warmer.

If Arsenal were to sign a central defender today, it will most likely be Mohammed Sakho. That guy has been on Wenger's raider for ages and with more money coming into PSG, it has been a bit difficult landing him.

However, the guy has been on the bench for a while now and he might be willing to move.

Just one trial can save a life career, with trial, he could probably be playing for arsenal for the rest of his life, a lot of establish and non establish goes for trial. Arsenal is a champion league club and not sunderland, those advertising him shouldn't think of future benefit and not today because if he pass the trial, he owned everything to himself and may enjoy it for the next 20 yrs

Senatorxzibit: Oboabona made a wise decision,africans should be respected.playing in sunshine fc doesnt make him a average player

Which wise decision?? He better swallow his pride and go for trials. So it is better to stay in Sunshine than go to Arsenal??

He should have gone.i call this pride.wit this, no club may even come for him for they may think he is the proud type.he shouldn't have done it through the media. For there is a saying "that wen a blind man refuses to eat the yam that falls under his legs,he may not have another to eat.

You guys saying Oboabona has ego problems are just deluded. If you have considerate number of years of work experience and one company like that invites you to write an aptitude test, would you go? He who stands for nothing falls for everything

Oboabona benched captain yobo,can arsenal call yobo for trial?

olojuede01: Which wise decision?? He better swallow his pride and go for trials. So it is better to stay in Sunshine than go to Arsenal??

those people deceiving him should let him alone, better he face trial,3 yrs in arsenal may earn him more than 30 yrs in sunshine, his life is about to face U-turn, he may play in arsenal today and end up inn barcelona like song. Arsenal always help career, hope he won't live to regret this later

[quote author=luvable sam]n TP mazembe still beat d same south american champion in 2010 so wats ur point?
dats a rare occurrence, let African team do dis year in year out den they will be takin serious

Afam4eva:
This applies to players from country will some football pedigree. Trials are meant for players that have not proven themselves at the international stage. Oboagbona did that at the Nations cup and at the confederations cup. We're no saying he's the best Player there is, but he needs to be accorded some respect in his own right as a relatively established footballer for his country.

Really!!!! Nations cup is just 6 games which you could easily fluke!!! and talking about pedigree, where would you place the Nigeria league in Africa? top 5, 10, 15 etc

Was oboabona not part of home based Eagle that lost 2-0 to ivory coast?. Even if Arsenal did not sign you after the trial, it does not stops u from answering your name, drop this ur ego and go if really you are called for trial. For the fact that you play for national team and won nation cup did not make you professional, go and ask Palacious, former tottenham player now with stoke. Dont listen to Adepoju, otherwise you would get urself to blame tomorrow. All d best.

Senatorxzibit: Oboabona made a wise decision,africans should be respected.playing in sunshine fc doesnt make him a average player

it does.....
( This young chap should drop dis lil ego and
move to the next level...what is he still doin
with Sunshine if he's dat gud?)

The question here is quite simple. How many top, European clubs are looking at Oboabona currently? The guy is being very short sighted. Just the fact that he would come and do trials with Arsenal, maybe play for in some of the pre-season games would raise his profile. It might not even be Arsenal that finally offers him a contract but some other club that get to see him. He should not worry, I am sure there's many 2nd division clubs in Greece, Spain and Portugal that will be happy to sign him with no trials.Water finds it's level always.

Oboabona should drop that ego and do the trials. What's the worst case scenario? What's the best case scenario? African league and its tournaments aren't even taken seriously by most top clubs. A leap from Sunshine stars to Arsenal is gigantic. So many better players would kill to have that opportunity. Nations cup no b champions league or World cup o.

BizBooks: Quoting Victor Ikpeba



Apart from Gervinho, how many other African players play for Arsenal? In case you do not know,
every black player on that team is from France.

Errm... Eboue, Kolo Toure, Gervinho, Lauren, Charmakh, just to name a few! He's not all that to be honest, and his reply just shows he exudes arrogance. Maybe you should pick up Ibrahimovic's autobiography. He claims he turned down the trial because he knew Roma and Milan wanted him, so stop comparing both situations. Who else wants Oboabona? Is he as good as Miguel? I doubt he was offered a trial in the first place.

Kanu nwankwo, adebayor, song

Football clubs in this era do not buy players based on National Team performance anymore. It is that simple.

The problem is we don't have videos to analyze players for our league, no data to see if they fit into a system. Oboabona going on trial is to help achieve that nothing more.
Agents link Arsenal to players so that clubs might take a look, by answering the call he would have attracted other teams even if he fails at Arsenal. Sanogo or most young European or South American players are not called for Trials because data is readily available. Arsene doesn't sign players by hearsay,they look at data first before anything else.

For details about data in sports watch the movie Moneyball.

Since kolo toure did not go through trials before he joined arsenal, I see no reason why oboabona should undergo trial before he is given a contract.