₦airaland Forum

TheSuperNerd:
Hear it from the Scout who found Zadok Abu Yohanna playing at the Ikon Allah FA in Kaduna prior to his 2025 move to Europe. Herish Sadi...

Papi85:
The scout who discovered new sensation Zadok Yohanna has revealed how he practically put his job on the line for Swedish club AIK to sign the youngster.

The scout, Herish Sadi, recalled: “I was really impressed when I watched him play as a number 10 and on the wing.

“There were a lot of scouts there, and we had to move fast.


“I called AIK’s CEO and said; How would a hundred million Krona (10 million Euros) feel? You need to close this deal right away.

“If he doesn’t turn out well, fire me. Fire me without compensation, I said.

“I negotiated with the president and managers there. I actually closed the deal that same evening, and he officially became an AIK player.”

#copied

SolaFide:
Millwall winger Femi Azeez has been shortlisted for the 2025–26 EFL Championship Player of the Season award following a spectacular campaign .

Eric Chelle and NFF must move in quickly.

TheSuperNerd:
*Coughs....

TheSuperNerd:
As we all know, aside the Poland & Portugal Friendlies, we can indeed look forward to the Unity Cup.

We gave Benjamin Frederick a chance at this tourney. Who is the next rookie we gonna see?

https://x.com/i/status/2041834243114868792

Papi85:
mk dem look for another high profile friendly abeg than this mumu unity cup

Imagine what playing against India would look like 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

jihday:
he’s now a coach in the UK

TheSuperNerd:
Michael Kayode - In Progress⏳️ and I hope we succeed.

Noah Atubolu - Should be looked at keenly as Germany has already drawn out their GK roster for the WC. Oliver Baumann of Hoffenheim will he 1st choice. Nubel will be second choice and I am sure as hell 3rd spot goes to either Augsburg's GK or some other "Pure" German breed.
Atubolu was their 1st choice at last year's U21 euros where Germany reached the final finishing 2nd to England. Woltemade now at Newcastle played in thar tournament.
Atubolu's backups are now 1st choices at Hertha Berlin and Hannover both pushing for promotion up from Bundesliga 2 yet he keeps getting ignored by the Senior side... I hope it continues so he softens and give Nigeria a chance to bag him for good.


Ethan Nwaneri - Top Talented lad but the rise of Max Dowman at Arsenal in same roles as Nwaneri (both are CAMs/RWs) threatens his chances at both Arsenal and England's senior setup in the long run. Also, current lads like Cole Palmer (CAM, RW), Bukayo Saka (RW), Morgan Rogers (CAM, LW, RW) and ofcos the #1 CAM choice for England, Jude Bellingham makes it hard to see Ethan at this WC or even the next. I no even call Eberechi Eze... England is stacked man! And those names are all ages 22-24.

Ethan is 19 so how long will he wait? I hope we can bag him. Get Nwaneri and our CAM/Midfield creator role gets instantly upgraded and the options become really good for us tactically in a creative sense.

I would say the likes of Lesley Ugochukwu (Burnley), & Tim Iroegbunam (Everton) should be approached strongly as well while keeping eyes on rising ones like for instance, Julius Emefile at FCM in Denmark.

TheSuperNerd:
Rami Kaib, the Tunisian left back at Halmstads BK who came up vs Zadok had this to say...

Culled from Fotboll Direkt, sweden...


Rami Kaib had a tough day at work when he faced AIK's Zadok Yohanna.
Despite that, he says he has faced tougher opponents earlier in his career.
– "I faced Antony when he played for Ajax – I had a much tougher time then," the full-back tells Expressen.

Last Sunday, AIK played their first match against Halmstads BK at Strawberry Arena – where Zadok Yohanna became the player on everyone's lips.

The 18-year-old Nigerian winger put in a magnificent performance and made Rami Kaib's day at work tough. He was already shown a yellow card in the 16th minute and the duels with Yohanna usually ended with the AIK player getting past him.

A couple of days after the premiere, which Yohanna decided with seven regular minutes left to play, Kaib understands why he was called.
– "It was a tough match, everyone could probably see that. There were a lot of one-on-one situations against Yohanna who played a very good match," he tells Expressen.


However, he believes that the AIK talent is not the most difficult opponent he has faced.

– "The thing is… I've faced better players to be honest, but he's a damn good player. When I faced Antony when he played in Ajax – I had a much tougher time, I can say," he says and laughs.

However, the fact that "Gnaget"'s attacking play would revolve a lot around Yohanna did not come as a shock to the 28-year-old.

– "If there was anyone who would decide the match, it would be Yohanna or Bersant Celina. We had talked about that, that a lot of AIK's games revolve around them. And that's how it turned out , he concludes."




Nerdie's tots:

Just one of the many times ⚡️adok floored Kaib in one game alone ooo... lol

Zadok Yohanna ankel breaker på Rami Kaib, vilken lirare! #AIK pic.twitter.com/23Yin0Nsyw

— Pontus (@PontusOrnberg) April 6, 2026

TheSuperNerd:
Nwokem, dont you want vengeance on that 99-1 vs India? We must do our own back ooo. We must score 101.

chrisooblog:
Not really keen on Lesley due to the flimsy reason he gave for not wanting to join the Nigerian setup plus football wise not sure he will be an upgrade.

AndSunGorilla:
Good one, please he shouldn't end up like Onyekuru o.

AndSunGorilla:
Good one, please he shouldn't end up like Onyekuru o.

TheSuperNerd:
As we all know, aside the Poland & Portugal Friendlies, we can indeed look forward to the Unity Cup.

We gave Benjamin Frederick a chance at this tourney. Who is the next rookie we gonna see?

https://x.com/i/status/2041834243114868792

Predator87:
Morocco out here collecting players like Thanos. We need to be more proactive when it comes to diaspora born players or we will be left behind.

Napoleon55:
We won't be left behind because of foreign born.

I don't understand you guys with all these foreign born talk all the time.

Just look at it,
Even with the little the NFF have done with the foreign born acquisition, compare them with the DR Congo's or Morocco, do you think they are of better quality than ours?
I mean we've managed to recruit Lookman, one time Afriica's best and still one of the best wing forwards in Africa,only Mahrez and Kanoute have managed to do so for all the African foreign born.
We've got Aina, one of the best right backs in Africa.
There is Iwobi,one of the best midfielders.
Ekong was once AFCON's MVP.

Foreign born acquisition is not our problem, it's just a fraction of it,we need a working system and every other things will fall in place.

As far as I'm concerned, the players we have missed to recruit since all these foreign born thing started are:
Alaba
Dele Ali
Eze
Olise
Saka
Tomori
And maybe Madueke,the rest are just there.

But I agre the NFF need to work harder and make the super eagles more attractive to make it easier to attract the very best of the best foreign Borns, not just every up and coming foreign born players,because the super is a brand to be competing for the world cup trophy.
But still, we will never going to get them all.

jihday:
I’ve seen Atubolu, he’s just ok not great

Predator87:
Keep making excuses for the useless NFF. 2030 will come and we won't qualify for the world cup Dey play. Look how aggressive Morocco, Senegal and Congo are. If Nigeria put in as much effort the likes of Kayode, Nnwaneri, and Atubolu would have switched. The reason why some of us are concerned about this is because our grassroots is dead. The nff lead by Pinnick and Gausau killed it, and the only way we can even compete with elite African teams now is by recruiting Foreign born players. U17 no coach U20 no coach, U23 no coach. U17 that we have won 5x we cannot qualify anymore. U23 that we have won Gold Silver and Bronze we cannot qualify anymore. Where are the players that will understudy and take over from this Osimhen set going to come from? Dey play o. Dey play.

Goke7:
It’s criminal we missed out on an olise that was a standby player just in 2022 haba!

Predator87:
Keep making excuses for the useless NFF. 2030 will come and we won't qualify for the world cup Dey play. Look how aggressive Morocco, Senegal and Congo are. If Nigeria put in as much effort the likes of Kayode, Nnwaneri, and Atubolu would have switched. The reason why some of us are concerned about this is because our grassroots is dead. The nff lead by Pinnick and Gausau killed it, and the only way we can even compete with elite African teams now is by recruiting Foreign born players. U17 no coach U20 no coach, U23 no coach. U17 that we have won 5x we cannot qualify anymore. U23 that we have won Gold Silver and Bronze we cannot qualify anymore. Where are the players that will understudy and take over from this Osimhen set going to come from? Dey play o. Dey play.

Napoleon55:
We won't be left behind because of foreign born.

I don't understand you guys with all these foreign born talk all the time.

Just look at it,
Even with the little the NFF have done with the foreign born acquisition, compare them with the DR Congo's or Morocco, do you think they are of better quality than ours?
I mean we've managed to recruit Lookman, one time Afriica's best and still one of the best wing forwards in Africa,only Mahrez and Kanoute have managed to do so for all the African foreign born.
We've got Aina, one of the best right backs in Africa.
There is Iwobi,one of the best midfielders.
Ekong was once AFCON's MVP.

Foreign born acquisition is not our problem, it's just a fraction of it,we need a working system and every other things will fall in place.

As far as I'm concerned, the players we have missed to recruit since all these foreign born thing started are:
Alaba
Dele Ali
Eze
Olise
Saka
Tomori
And maybe Madueke,the rest are just there.

But I agre the NFF need to work harder and make the super eagles more attractive to make it easier to attract the very best of the best foreign Borns, not just every up and coming foreign born players,because the super is a brand to be competing for the world cup trophy.
But still, we will never going to get them all.

Kog45:
Michael Olise refused our invitation,his name on the list was just to cover our poor administration, nothing more...pls tell me who approached Olise...only Eberechi Eze pained me,he came to eagles camp in London, meaning he was willing but at the end we missed him

Napoleon55:
I'm not holding brief for the NFF or whatever they are called, I don't even like them but I won't join in making incorrect assumptions.

We have been going to the world cup without the help of foreign born players, and I assure you,even today or tomorrow, Nigeria can still qualify and do well at the world cup without the help of a single foreign born players if the right things are put in place.

Even in our precarity,
All the Nigeria artistes that are doing well globally today,were they manufactured outside?
The Nigerian athletes that usually dominates Africa year in year out,were they always imported from abroad to represent us or born outside?
Even in basketball, movies,comdies,academics,the list goes on.
Now when it comes to football, we suddenly won't be able to find people to represent us from over 200m people born in Nigeria just because some people who were put in charge are unable to do their jobs well enough.

You might think I'm naive,or that I deceive myself in saying all these,
But once the present group of leaders in charge of our football phases out,and we luckily have the better ones in their place,
You will see that even the grassroots you thought are dead,will suddenly becomes alive, our youth teams will start producing formidable teams capable of winning championships again.
Even our league can be revitalized again.
But the system will have to experience a change first.

Napoleon55:
I'm not holding brief for the NFF or whatever they are called, I don't even like them but I won't join in making incorrect assumptions.

We have been going to the world cup without the help of foreign born players, and I assure you,even today or tomorrow, Nigeria can still qualify and do well at the world cup without the help of a single foreign born players if the right things are put in place.

Even in our precarity,
All the Nigeria artistes that are doing well globally today,were they manufactured outside?
The Nigerian athletes that usually dominates Africa year in year out,were they always imported from abroad to represent us or born outside?
Even in basketball, movies,comdies,academics,the list goes on.
Now when it comes to football, we suddenly won't be able to find people to represent us from over 200m people born in Nigeria just because some people who were put in charge are unable to do their jobs well enough.

You might think I'm naive,or that I deceive myself in saying all these,
But once the present group of leaders in charge of our football phases out,and we luckily have the better ones in their place,
You will see that even the grassroots you thought are dead,will suddenly becomes alive, our youth teams will start producing formidable teams capable of winning championships again.
Even our league can be revitalized again.
But the system will have to experience a change first.

Bruno Onyemaechi - 4 Games, 4 Chances Created per game Game / 8.6 Duels won per game

Nigerian Men’s Player of the Month for March 2026 pic.twitter.com/cf0rx2vQ5u

— EaglesTracker (@ETMediaNG) April 8, 2026

Predator87:
I stopped reading at Basketball. Majority of our Basketball players are foreign born especially the women's team. Without Foreign born players our Super Eagles would be dead and buried. Football has changed. The world is changing. More countries are tapping into their diaspora to move foward. Only Nigeria is stuck with ego, pride jealousy and corruption. Ok you think we can do without them. Fine. What have we done at the grassroots? Our U17, U20, andd U23 teams have no coach, no team. Our domestic league is dead. Nigerian clubs can't even compete in Africa anymore. The pipeline from Nigeria to top leagues in Europe has dried up. So the means of getting these local born players to the top is broken. You need to wake up my friend. Next world cup in 2030 but no plan. Like play we will miss another world cup. It's becoming our new normal.

Goke7:
It’s that ego and pride that’s killing us. Countries like Morocco despite all they are achieving they keep scooping up talent from anywhere in the world even into their under age teams. We had better wake up before countries like Eritrea start becoming difficult to beat!

The Ivory Coast in this last Afcon was stronger than the one we met in 2023 just because of the addition of players like Amad Diallo who migrated to Italy at the age of eight!

Predator87:
I stopped reading at Basketball. Majority of our Basketball players are foreign born especially the women's team. Without Foreign born players our Super Eagles would be dead and buried. Football has changed. The world is changing. More countries are tapping into their diaspora to move foward. Only Nigeria is stuck with ego, pride jealousy and corruption. Ok you think we can do without them. Fine. What have we done at the grassroots? Our U17, U20, andd U23 teams have no coach, no team. Our domestic league is dead. Nigerian clubs can't even compete in Africa anymore. The pipeline from Nigeria to top leagues in Europe has dried up. So the means of getting these local born players to the top is broken. You need to wake up my friend. Next world cup in 2030 but no plan. Like play we will miss another world cup. It's becoming our new normal.

Predator87:
Unity cup should be for the U23 team. It's a shame we don't even have a coach for any of our youth teams. Playing India and Zimbabwe is just...ewwww