Enyimba star Victor Mbaoma has been ruled out of the Elephant’s Champions League tie against Al Merrikh of Sudan due to an ankle injury, Completesports.com reports.
The NPFL giants made this known in a statement on their website on Tuesday.
“Victor Mbaoma will not be in the party when Enyimba face Sudanese giants Al Merrikh in the Champions League next Wednesday.
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“The 24-year-old, who scored the only goal in the team’s win against Rahimo in Ouagadougou last month sustained a knock on his ankle after making a substitute appearance in the reverse fixture in Aba.
“Although he managed to see the game through, the forward has since been unable to train and will not recover in time for the trip to Omdurman.
“Enyimba are in contention for a group stage berth with Al Merreikh, who eliminated Congolese side Otoho D’Oyo to get to this stage.
“The first leg of the the first round tie will hold at the Al Hilal Stadium in Omdurman, as Merrikh’s home ground, the Al Merrikh Stadium, continues to undergo renovation.”
Enyimba are Nigeria’s only remaining club in the CAF Champions League after Plateau United were eliminated.
By James Agberebi
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Victor Mboama is far better than some foreign based Super Eagles players. Sunday Dare deserves an accolade for pushing homebased players down Gernot Rohr’s throat. We need them. Once the domestic league is back up and running, Kano Pillars and the likes should be able to provide no less than 10 exceptional players to the Super Eagles defence, midfield and attack. The days of ignorance are past.
Victor Mbaoma is far better than some foreign based Super Eagles players. Sunday Dare deserves an accolade for pushing homebased players down Gernot Rohr’s throat. We need them. Once the domestic league is back up and running, Kano Pillars and the likes should be able to provide no less than 10 exceptional players to the Super Eagles defence, midfield and attack. The days of ignorance are past.
Talk with sense
@Count of Monte Cristo, lets wait till these “exceptional players” qualify for common CHAN or CAF Champions League group stage. Then please name the foreign based players that should be dropped for these “exceptional players”.
Mark my words, the day will come when you come to thank Sunday Dare for insisting on the inclusion of homebased players in the national team. If we rely too much on this pandemic of always going down on our knees to beg dual nationality players to play for Nigeria, indigenous football will surely suffer. As we put ourselves to shame to go begging these foreigners, we should also encourage Rohr to bring in players from the local scene. Let’s be clear, Rohr has given a lot of homebased players a chance. However, this should be an ongoing exercise. Just because he gave some a chance in the past and they ended up in North Korean Premier League does not mean he should stop. The NFF and the League Management Company have their part to play. At the very least, the league has to run from start to finish. Then players wages should be paid and foreign players should be attracted to the NPFL. Everyone has a part to play. But to overlook the league entirely is like throwing the baby away with the bath water. The NPFL houses untapped resources, virgin prospects and valuable assets in the way of some of the best players in the whole of Ecowas. To be blind to these possibilities is most unwise.
Let them qualify for CHAN first. Let your home based players reach the quarter final of any of this ongoing CAF competition first. For a fools information, some people should know that SE cannot be reduce to NPFL which is nothing more than a cassava league. For Rohr to be quite doesn’t mean he is foolish. No problem about 4 quack players, because there is a place call bench in football. After all you can ask Ezenwa what bench means in a national team.
The only reason why homebased players are currently undervalued is because the league has been stop-start for almost 3 seasons now. Sunday Dare has to work with the relevant department to fix this situation. From what is leaking out from the Greenhouse, or is it Glasshouse, plans are underway to launch a dedicated app for the NPFL, to show matches in high quality and to ensure that the league runs concurrently with the calendar of Western European leagues. Once these and many more initiatives happen, homebased players will flood the national team like a tsunami. Big things are in the pipeline. Those who gloat at the performances of NPFL teams in continental competitions are talking with fish bone stuck in their throat. The only reason for this is because of the inactive league and not due to lack of quality. The NPFL has some of the most talented players in Anglophone West Africa. It wasn’t that long ago that Sikiru Olatubosun’s goals was nominated by the CNN as the goal of the period. It was in the same NPFL. Instead of putting petrol in a diesel engine car, why not be focused enough to identify where the real problem is. The talents that you find in the NPFL are some of the best in the ECOWAS region. There can be no debate about this. Just let the league run regularly, show these matches in High Definition and see another homebased player score the winning goal for the Super Eagles in the Africa Cup of Nations.
No sane person should degenerate to the point of arguing with you.
We should stop talking just for talking sake. Everyone including I n I will be happy to see exceptional homebased talents in the SE. BUT HERE ARE THE 3 BEGGING THINGS TO DO FIRST BEFORE WE CAN BE SURE THAT WE ARE DOING THE RIGHT THING ABOUT HOMEBASE PLAYERS.
1) First and foremost, Tell Mr Dare and Pinnick to find a way of stopping homebased talents invited to SE from using that INVITATION as passage route to all kinds of obscure foreign leagues, for SE is not a platform for selling players but primarily an expression of NIGERIA BRAND OF FOOTBALL TO BETTER OUR LEAGUE FINANCIALLY,MATERIALLY and ultimately in quality and not the brain drain we are experiencing today. Even for free, I won’t go watch any of our league games, as every good talent gets shipped out to all kinds of foreign leagues leaving the low quality/aged ones behind.
2) Let those supposedly exceptional homebased talents win CHAN and try to successfully defend it, then watch how we all are gonna pressure whoever is the manager of SE to bring a greater percentage of the squad into the main stream SE.
3) Let such exceptional homebased talents win African based best player award playing for Nigerian clubsides, and I tell you no one will raise any eye brow when such players gets invited.
Otherwise all these talks about creating space for 3or 4 local based players is only to wet the pockets of some greedy/selfish politicians/agents and it’s definitely gonna weaken the SE squad.
@adisboy, mark my words, the day will come when you come to thank Sunday Dare for insisting on the inclusion of homebased players in the national team. If we rely too much on this pandemic of always going down on our knees to beg dual nationality players to play for Nigeria, indigenous football will surely suffer. As we put ourselves to shame to go begging these foreign borns, we should also encourage Rohr to bring in players from the local scene. Let’s be clear, Rohr has given a lot of homebased players a chance. However, this should be an ongoing exercise. Just because he gave some a chance in the past and they ended up in North Korean Premier League does not mean he should stop. The NFF and the League Management Company have their part to play. At the very least, the league has to run from start to finish. Then players wages should be paid and foreign players should be attracted to the NPFL. Everyone has a part to play. But to overlook the league entirely is like throwing the baby away with the bath water. The NPFL houses untapped resources, virgin prospects and valuable assets in the way of some of the best players in the whole of Ecowas. To be blind to these possibilities is most unwise.
some people’s express disgusting opinions,such that do not,in any way, accord with wisdom……imagine someone advocating for players from a league that is non existing,players that are ready to jump at any offer as long as its abroad.Ogenyi onazi cited UNPAID SALARIES as one of those reasons he terminated his contract with transbuspor.But WHO ARE THE HOME BASED PLAYERS? i guess they are the nigerian premier league players lurking around nd waiting for their first national team invitations as stepping board to fly into any league ABROAD,then the truth is that we do not have any player who is WILLINGLY,SINCERELY ND PROFESSIONALLY BASED IN NIGERIA,nd unfortunately the national team is not nd can never be warehouse for sale of players……various football clubs are in better position for sales nd purchases of players as business entities
when contracts are signed agents,club sides nd other stakeholders EXCLUDING the national team’s federation share the proceeds from the sale of any player because the national team management is regarded as also benefiting from the performances of those players being products of various football club.So why ask Gernot Rohr to develop football players who are expected to be FINISHED PRODUCTS from their various clubs?……national team players are the BEST AVAILABLE players a country has at her disposal at any given time
@count of monte, you’re intelligent and optimistic, these are the strength of your arguments but they are also your greatest weakness.
I will quote some of your points in order to show you the flaws in them:
1. “Dare deserves an accolade for pushing homebased players down Gernot Rohr’s throat. We need them. Once the domestic league is back up and running, Kano Pillars and the likes should be able to provide no less than 10 exceptional players to the Super Eagles…”
You shot yourself in the foot with this statement alone. The first task of a leader is to define reality. Are there talents in the NPFL? They sure are. Are these talents, in their current shape, good enough to be included in the super eagles? No a million times! And that’s the essence of my argument: do not put the cart ahead of the ox.
Reality means things as they really are. Super eagles are strong, and that’s by the help of dual nationalities players. The state of the NPFL has been terrible since god-knows-when, to the Stephen Keshi era, to till today. During Keshi, we had a no10 problem. Keshi experimented with the likes of rabiu Ibrahim, to Emmanuel Nosa idiagbor (can’t spell his name correctly), before going with Mikel who’s a no4 at Chelsea. So tell me, out of the 20 teams playing in the NPFL we can’t pick a single playmaker, with quality enough to play at world stage? Oh please, don’t mention Sunday Mba. After afcon Keshi threw the guy away. For the 2014 world cup, Ramon Azeez was picked ahead of him. The same Azeez that can’t secure a starting spot at super eagles because of Iwobi. With the inclusion of Ejaria, it will be good bye to Ramon Azeez super eagles career. But let’s don’t forget that Azeez is at his prime, that’s how bad things are in NPFL, that a developing Azeez (then) can bench the whole league assist leaders. Are you getting my point?
If Dare is to be sincere to himself, he would admit that the current players in our national league are no match to the ones we have in the super eagles. His concern, therefore, should be creating the adequate systems for ensuring that the talents in the NPFL are honed, developed and creatively marketed to make them good enough to stand side by side with other African leagues.
I’m debating this because I believe your arguments springs from good intentions, even though naive. Even the Mbaoma you mentioned how good is he. Just so you know, Awoniyi scored yesterday, making his goal tally to 3. Awoniyi has started the last 6 matches, not in a Belgian or Norwegian league but in bundelisga. Sadiq Umar scored during the weekend. Sadiq’s coach is confident that Sadiq will score up to 16 goals. That’s how good he is. Both Taiwo and Umar are playing regularly. Even Iheanacho played all six games at Europa league, starting 5. Kelechi scored 3 assisted 3, meaning he made an average of 1 goal contribution per appearance. Then there’s Paul onuachu the top goal scorer in the Belgian league. I can bet there’s no player in the NPFL that wouldn’t leave our league for Belgium just for trial, no player! And here we have onuachu as top goal scorer. Mix Desser and Maja to the list and in total we have 5 good strikers at world stage. Bring Victor Osimhen and Ahmed Musa, and that will make it 7 strikers. So tell me @count, if you were a coach that have a target of winning the next afcon and you have to select 3 strikers for the tournament, who would you bring? Lemme guess – Osimhen, Sadiq and Mbaoma. Lolz!
I’m by no means undermining the potentials in the NPFL, because it is from there the likes of Jay Jay Okocha, Enyeama, Musa, Moses Simon, etc, started. But let’s set the record straight, these players didn’t use the super eagles as a platform to elevate their careers. But by sheer diligence and dedication they became who they are.
@Glory raised some requirements, do you have an answer to them? And let’s not forget the greedy agents/poachers waiting to pounce on the home based players, using them as means of enriching their pockets.
Super Eagles all the best!
@Kingston,being optimistic is the best way to be or else you will go mad about the state of affairs of Nigerian football. Would you rather be dystopian? Although your analysis is well thought through, it suffers from a major flaw which is that it is too short term in scope. The league in its current form is not good for anyone. It is not good for the players, the coaches, the various national teams and the fans. Fix the league and the quality of the players will shine through, sounds easy right? When the team was marginally okay, its products gave us 1 Chan silver, 1 chan bronze, 1 wafu silver, a number of all Africa games medals, qualification for the Olympics and individual awards all in the space of just 6 years (from 2012 to 2018). Homebased players have achieved far more than our short-term memory allows us to give them credit for. That period of remarkable development and achievements can happen again. Just let the league run from start to finish, pay the players what they are worth, attract players from the sub-continent, run the league professionally and then watch NPFL players walk into the Super Eagles team. We talk as if homebased players have not done anything tangible in the last 10 years, Rubbish. By virtue of the reputation Western leagues have built for themselves over a hundred years, Nigerian players who play there will always be seen as a more attractive proposition for the national team compared to an NPFL player (no matter how well run the NPFL is). It is then up to a sports minister with vision and a brave Super Eagles coach to retain slots in the national team across departments for players of the NPFL. This is because is it the right thing to do.