Ex-internationals have faulted Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro, over the non-inclusion of outfield players from the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) in his team’s provisional squad for the Africa Cup of Nations which kicks off next month in Ivory Coast.
The Confederation of the African Football (CAF) revealed Peseiro’s 41-man provisional squad for the tournament on Wednesday with only three goalkeepers from the NPFL included in his list.
The players are Ojo Olorunleke, Amas Obasogie and Christian Nwoke.
A disappointed Odion Ighalo, who played for Prime of Oshogbo in Osun State and the defunct Julius Berger of Lagos in the NPFL before moving to Europe in 2007, said the decision to overlook players from the local league is an aberration that will further demoralise the morale of players in the domestic league.
“I don’t think it is right not to invite any home-based players, because this is a provisional list”, Ighalo told Oma Sports.
“In a 41-man list, at least five to seven players from the NPFL should be on the list just to encourage them. Even if we know the coach won’t keep any of them for the tournament.
“But not including an outfield player in the squad means you don’t focus on the league.
“This means that you (the coaches) don’t trust them you don’t encourage them to work hard more.
“Such a decision means you don’t trust them. I pray they give the home-based players opportunities to train with the first team for subsequent tournaments”.
Atlanta ’96 gold medallist Joseph Dosu, who also starred for the defunct Julius Berger in the 1990s, decried the decision to overlook Kingdom Osayi from the list of goalkeepers in the provisional squad.
“I really don’t know the criteria for inviting goalkeepers to the national team but regardless I think Osayi deserves a call-up”, Dosu stated.
“I don’t want to delve into the exclusion of the outfield players because excluding them from a provisional list means that they are not good enough. If he (Peseiro) will be the coach of the Eagles B team like we are made to believe what sort of message is this to them?
“It simply means that he doesn’t believe in the NPFL players”.
It remains to be seen if either of the trio will make the final 27-man squad for the AFCON which will be announced before 3 January.
John Noble was the only player from the NPFL who made the Eagles squad to the 2021 AFCON hosted by Cameroon where they exited in the round of 16.
