charlesemeka85:
Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has admitted it would be difficult to invite Arsenal rising star Bukayo Saka to the national team because he has competitive caps for England's youth teams.

The Hale End Academy product was there for the taking until he became provisionally cap-tied to England after featuring for the Young Lions at the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and has also played competitively for the U19 squad.

It took a long while before former England youth internationals Ola Aina, Victor Moses and Sammy Ameobi were able to switch nationalities, and Rohr fears Saka would suffer the same fate if he decides to play for Nigeria.


The Nigeria Football Federation have attempted to woo Chelsea duo Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori and the English Football Association quickly stopped them in their tracks by handing call-ups to the Chelsea duo for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

''On Bukayo Saka of Arsenal, it is not easy to invite players who has played already for England or other countries in the U-17, U-18 and U-20 categories,'' Rohr explained to Sporting Life Nigeria.

''It is very tedious and requires long processes to do so. I could remember that it took us one year before Ola Aina’s issue was resolved before he was cleared by FIFA and was eligible to play for us.''

The 18-year-old Saka has played eight games for Arsenal's first team since his debut in November 2018, scoring once and providing three assists.

Barryseal:
Why are people taking Tomori's decision badly?
Ajayi was being celebrated as a good centre back, on goal scoring streak in the championship where Tomori played just a few months ago.

If indeed Ajayi is as good as the hype, why are you guys saying we don't have good centre back options in addition to Ekong, Omeruo, Awaziem.
Either these guys are good or people have been speaking with both sides of their mouth.

Philosopher1979:



CHIDERA EJUKE IS A BETTER PLAYER THAN BUKAYO SAKA. HE IS ALSO A WINGER AND PLAYS FOR HEERENVEN IN THE DUCTH LEAGUE. WE DO NOT AND I REPEAT WE DO NOT NEED THESE FOREIGN BORN PLAYERS.
IN FACT CHIDERA EJUKE IS CALLED THE NIGERIAN INIESTA AS HE IS VERY SKILLFILL. WE NEED TO START APPRECIATING OUR HOME GROWN TALENTS IN OUR YOUTH COMPETITIONS AND ACADEMIES. IT IS RIDICULOUS SCRAMBLING FOR FOREIGN BASED PLAYERS. THEY SHOULD BE AN AFTER THOUGHT AND NOT THE MAIN THING
WE HAVE PLAYERS AS GOOD AS MBAPE IN LAGOS, POURT HARCOURT AND ABUJA BUT IN OUR STUPIDITY WE WILL REFUSE TO DEVELOP THEM

Philosopher1979:



CHIDERA EJUKE IS A BETTER PLAYER THAN BUKAYO SAKA. HE IS ALSO A WINGER AND PLAYS FOR HEERENVEN IN THE DUCTH LEAGUE. WE DO NOT AND I REPEAT WE DO NOT NEED THESE FOREIGN BORN PLAYERS.
IN FACT CHIDERA EJUKE IS CALLED THE NIGERIAN INIESTA AS HE IS VERY SKILLFILL. WE NEED TO START APPRECIATING OUR HOME GROWN TALENTS IN OUR YOUTH COMPETITIONS AND ACADEMIES. IT IS RIDICULOUS SCRAMBLING FOR FOREIGN BASED PLAYERS. THEY SHOULD BE AN AFTER THOUGHT AND NOT THE MAIN THING
WE HAVE PLAYERS AS GOOD AS MBAPE IN LAGOS, POURT HARCOURT AND ABUJA BUT IN OUR STUPIDITY WE WILL REFUSE TO DEVELOP THEM

Philosopher1979:



CHIDERA EJUKE IS A BETTER PLAYER THAN BUKAYO SAKA. HE IS ALSO A WINGER AND PLAYS FOR HEERENVEN IN THE DUCTH LEAGUE. WE DO NOT AND I REPEAT WE DO NOT NEED THESE FOREIGN BORN PLAYERS.
IN FACT CHIDERA EJUKE IS CALLED THE NIGERIAN INIESTA AS HE IS VERY SKILLFILL. WE NEED TO START APPRECIATING OUR HOME GROWN TALENTS IN OUR YOUTH COMPETITIONS AND ACADEMIES. IT IS RIDICULOUS SCRAMBLING FOR FOREIGN BASED PLAYERS. THEY SHOULD BE AN AFTER THOUGHT AND NOT THE MAIN THING
WE HAVE PLAYERS AS GOOD AS MBAPE IN LAGOS, POURT HARCOURT AND ABUJA BUT IN OUR STUPIDITY WE WILL REFUSE TO DEVELOP THEM

gamaliel9:
What is ROHR talking about? I was thinking once you play for any country in u20, you are tied to them.... u17 no follow

edi287:

Tomori has made the step up to the epl and is performing well.
WE would've had our replacement for Leon. Time to move on I guess.

kennysville:
Friends, Countrymen, nairalanders....

On Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori

Finally, we can all rest from the unnecessary comparison, to cap or not to cap talk. I have watched from the sidelines how people fought each other, throwing jabs left, right and center. Can we now tell ourselves the blatant truth?
First up, it is time we stopped this chasing of Foreign born players and develop our own who understand our philosophy. Personally, i feel it is a shame on us as far as Nigeria is concerned. Those who are old enough to know in this group will remember players like John and Justin Fashanu who could have played for Nigeria but refused only to regret it later. The list goes on. Bottomline is the decision to play for another country rests with these players as it were. There is no reason to go moaning or insulting people just because Tammy or Tomori refused to play for Eagles.

What i find annoying is having to make these Foreign borns into what they are not. And that is elevating them beyond our own home groomed players. While i will not blame anyone who thinks otherwise, the truth is we need to look ourselves in the mirror and ask why we keep waiting for other nations to give us finished articles. Oh gosh now it all makes sense. Actually what does Nigeria produce? All we do is consume. We produce oil, export it and then import the refined products cos we are too corrupt to have functioning refineries.

We want things and we want it now. Unfortunately the societies that the Europeans and the west built were built decades ago. The systems they have working for them were built years ago. We on the other hand just like to take.... reap where we did not sow, have sense of entitlement. We get into government and forget the reason we went in there was to serve people. Everyone wants to look good at all costs. I beta pass you syndrome eating into the very fabric of our society.

What happened to us copying standards that actually work ? Have a proper system that monitors development. If it were up to me, I would shut down the NPFL for 2 years. Do restructuring and lay off all players over 22 yrs of age. But alas! Some people are gona be jobless with such an excercise (mostly players). Not to mention infrastructural issues. No facilities. Yall gonna ask so whats my point?

Well here it is.... it 's time we got our bloody s#it together unless of course we believe we are a lost cause.

On foreign borns, those who will not want to play for Naija, we wish them all the best. What we need in the Super Eagles are players ready to bleed green white green. Players who are passionate about Nigeria. We dont want players that want to come and look good or make us as plan B. We dont want Social media players who try to force the hand of a federation. As for Abraham and Tomori... I wish em the best. Hopefully they get 50caps for England. But enough is enough with international embarrassments and monumental disgrace. We are Naija! We get pride too. Na so e be!

charlesemeka85:
I see nothing wrong in approaching these kids and it's inevitable that we will never have them all. Reaching out to them doesn't hinder the progression of our league and player from the home front.

Other countries are tapping to the practice whereas fortifying their various teams so I see no reason why we can't do same.

I'm against begging any player to play for us but fully in support of reaching out to them and get those who are willing to dorn the national colors and as well fortify the team.


Lets forget about pride and sentiment. France planned having only white and indigenious French kids in from their youth set up which was backed by ex man utd defender blac but to their surprise the most talented kids in majority of French academies are sons and daughters of immigrants most especially from Africa.

If racist Europeans can hide their hate of the black race by fighting to have the best professionals out of our race in various sectors in their country in a bid to improve and do better I see no reason we should be filled with pride when reaching out to those we know can improve us.


No matter how we mourn and cry Tammy and fik are gone but that won't stop the future integration of euro born kids who re willing to feature for us.


Also no need to be scared cus kids groomed in 9ja are still the majority in the team and the emergence of euro born kids won't hinder the inclusion of locally groomed kids.

The selection method is an open one so it's left for both sides to work hard to get a deserved chance in the team

jihday:
You can't say we don't want foreign born, once a player is eligible to play for us it's very OK for us to approach such player, Every country does it even countries with superb organisation. There's no embarrassment if we approach a player and he turn us down, Spain approached Laporte he said no they did to Griezman too he said no Costa turned Brazil down for Spain, Jorginho flirted with his native Brazil for a call-up but them no look his side till Italy capped him after rejecting them earlier nobody was embarrassed. we Nigerians like to dey proud for nothing we aren't even top 3 best African team in history, if we see foreign born who will add value to our team we approach if he turn us down we'll move on

Earthquake1:


Those countries have a working youth structure, that compensates if the approached player does not play for them, what do we have?

We sorely RELY on these foreign players to breach GAPING holes in our team, that's we desperately chase them and are embarrassingly refused

We refuse to work on our production line because we believe an ENGLAND born, ENGLAND bred, ENGLAND trained player would deny his country of residence and play for us

Earthquake1:
Tomori has refused us, we are waiting for the next foreign born player to fill the gap in our defence

A country of 200 million people

jihday:
You can't say we don't want foreign born, once a player is eligible to play for us it's very OK for us to approach such player, Every country does it even countries with superb organisation. There's no embarrassment if we approach a player and he turn us down, Spain approached Laporte he said no they did to Griezman too he said no Costa turned Brazil down for Spain, Jorginho flirted with his native Brazil for a call-up but them no look his side till Italy capped him after rejecting them earlier nobody was embarrassed. we Nigerians like to dey proud for nothing we aren't even top 3 best African team in history, if we see foreign born who will add value to our team we approach if he turn us down we'll move on

jihday:
It's not by population Brazil have more and they can't boast of a decent CF don't mention Jesus cos he's been warming bench in City plus he flopped at the last world cup, USA have more population and we can easily beat them on our best day

Earthquake1:


Firminho and Gabigol na bricklayers?

@The bolded USA is not even a footballing nation, go and challenge them for basketball

jihday:
Who the fak is Gabigol? I'm talking about better players you are mentioning Latino Mfon Udoh, Firmino isn't an out and out striker @ USA what makes a footballing country? You guys don't even spend a quarter of what they invest in football so much for footballing country

charlesemeka85:
Oga no one doubts the fact that Ejuke is good enough for the super eagles. I posted something here few days ago on Rohr's eyes set on Ejuke who have been doing marvelously well in the eirdivisie. You can pour your frustration on Imama who ignored him but invited a 2nd tier player from Austria.

Rohr just replied to a question and didn't say he was gonna invite Saka soon but said it will he a bit difficult since he has official caps for the English youth team.


Also I see no wrong in having Ejuke and Saka in the u23 or current super eagles set up. The aim is having a large pool of young talented players. Stop been emotional rather listen to your head the more.

jihday:
Didn't even see this before I typed mine, Morroco have one of the best league in Africa but virtually the whole of their NT are French born they even have a Portuguese in their team

andrew444:


Is it compulsory will must always beg all this english play to play for us?

All these english players are just average players , not that they are better than what we have

jihday:
Who the fak is Gabigol? I'm talking about better players you are mentioning Latino Mfon Udoh, Firmino isn't an out and out striker @ USA what makes a footballing country? You guys don't even spend a quarter of what they invest in football so much for footballing country

Philosopher1979:



CHIDERA EJUKE IS A BETTER PLAYER THAN BUKAYO SAKA. HE IS ALSO A WINGER AND PLAYS FOR HEERENVEN IN THE DUCTH LEAGUE. WE DO NOT AND I REPEAT WE DO NOT NEED THESE FOREIGN BORN PLAYERS.
IN FACT CHIDERA EJUKE IS CALLED THE NIGERIAN INIESTA AS HE IS VERY SKILLFILL. WE NEED TO START APPRECIATING OUR HOME GROWN TALENTS IN OUR YOUTH COMPETITIONS AND ACADEMIES. IT IS RIDICULOUS SCRAMBLING FOR FOREIGN BASED PLAYERS. THEY SHOULD BE AN AFTER THOUGHT AND NOT THE MAIN THING
WE HAVE PLAYERS AS GOOD AS MBAPE IN LAGOS, POURT HARCOURT AND ABUJA BUT IN OUR STUPIDITY WE WILL REFUSE TO DEVELOP THEM

charlesemeka85:
Oga no one doubts the fact that Ejuke is good enough for the super eagles. I posted something here few days ago on Rohr's eyes set on Ejuke who have been doing marvelously well in the eirdivisie. You can pour your frustration on Imama who ignored him but invited a 2nd tier player from Austria.

Rohr just replied to a question and didn't say he was gonna invite Saka soon but said it will he a bit difficult since he has official caps for the English youth team.


Also I see no wrong in having Ejuke and Saka in the u23 or current super eagles set up. The aim is having a large pool of young talented players. Stop been emotional rather listen to your head the more.

tbaba1234:


Your super eagles is made up of foreign born player. Remove all the foreign born and dual citizen players from the Super Eagles, what kind of team would you have now?

No Iwobi, Aina, Ekong, Ebuehi, Semi Ajayi, Balogun.

These players will continue to play an integral part of our future.

tbaba1234:


Your super eagles is made up of foreign born player. Remove all the foreign born and dual citizen players from the Super Eagles, what kind of team would you have now?

No Iwobi, Aina, Ekong, Ebuehi, Semi Ajayi, Balogun.

These players will continue to play an integral part of our future.

Bolowolowo:


Iwobi is not foreign born.

Regardless, your point still stands. Foreign players will always be an integral part of our footballing system. If a foreigner is of Nigerian descent and merits being on our team, there's no harm in pursuing them.