Super Eagles midfielder, Alex Iwobi says he’s delighted with the move by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to get players of Nigerian descent to the senior national team.
The Nigerian international made this known during an interview on Nedum Onuoha’s podcast, where he revealed that players such as Ebere Eze, Sheyi Ojo, and a few to mention are already on NFF’s primary list.
Also Read: I Can’t Wait To Represent Nigeria – Moffi
Iwobi on Friday was in action as Everton played out a 2-2 against Tottenham in the Premier League. He was substituted in the 61st minute for Seamus Coleman.
He said: “Recently they get to ask me about so many players in England now, I feel like the scouting now has improved with Nigerian players based in England,” Iwobi said on Nedum Onuoha’s podcast.
“I have been asked couple of questions, for example about Ebere Eze, Sheyi Ojo, about so many other players they are looking to get in. I feel like it is improving.”
By Augustine Akhilomen
15 Comments
I think we should forget about that Eze guy he chose playing for Eng U21 over playing for Super Eagles. Trust me that guy’s heart is for England if he ever decides to play for us in the future… It’s because he feels there is no chance for him with England. The last thing we need right now is players with half-loyalty
Ebere Eze should not be blamed because after all he came to us first…..he wanted to play for Nigeria and he accompanied iwobi and Aina to SE England camp in 2018 when we wanted to play Burkina Faso…..After that camp he was ignored even when NFF saw that he was improving and he returned from his loan spell at millwall and then QPR coach made him a first team player….then he hasn’t played international football for any country but still NFF refused to call him when he was setting the championship on fire before England pounced by capping him at u21 the same window that we also had 2 matches to play and we ingnored him in both games…..so we should not put all the blame on him because we had a whole 8 months with 3 international breaks to cap him but we refused
@Akp international invitation are for those playing very good football.Don’t blame Nff or Rohr because you do not expect them to give a call to a player still finding his feet at a lower club.Super eagles is big side and you must be playing well at a good club to have a chance
But around the same period a player was selected from Turkey division 2 in the same team playing The same position with eze… I’m not in support of how eze is wasting our time but I just don’t want to blame him entirely…if we as NFF know our mistakes then we can correct them in the future and avoid losing other talents in the future
I simply could infer from your post that you definitely do not understand what you are talking about. Particularly on Eze’s case there was nothing NFF or Rohr did wrong. Eze simply is an English player at heart and I think it’s time we forgot about him COMPLETELY.
Sheyi Ojo been trying to play for super eagles, people here are slow. Ike Ugbo says he wants to play for super eagles. Eze is not coming, I don’t know why people keep beating on a dead horse. Iwobi should not play a scouter, tried to get Philip Billing to play and he wanted to stay and play for Denmark. The idea is to get people who wants to play and or can add to the team. With all this switching players around, over crowded team you gonna have a lot of players who are gonna be left out with only at most 4 caps. This will derail the team. Kayode, Olayinka. Olayinka wanted to play for Czech Republic earlier if he wasnt gonna get called by super eagles earlier, only got one cap and left on the side.
He could still switch his allegiance and play for them.
@Akp, I simply could infer from your post that you definitely do not understand what you are talking about. Particularly on Eze’s case there was nothing NFF or Rohr did wrong. Eze is simply an English player at heart and I think it’s time we forgot about him COMPLETELY.
Eze is an average player good enough to play for under 21 in England. He said he did not want to play for Nigeria in the first place. Why calling him now. He is waiting to play for England. Good luck with that.
@Edman there’s no point lying about the guy just because he decided to play for England U21 and not Super Eagles. That decision does not make him an average player, be honest the guy is good.
Nwakali is still banging goals in accorcon. The guy has gotten the much needed form. Scoring free kicks and laying killer passes, I am happy for him. I really hope rohr look his way, him ndidi and etebo will be massive and difficult to upress, aribo and iwobi are good to compete with chukwuez and kalu in the wings, having nwakali will be of many advantage
He has long and precise passes very similar to that of pogba. He have short killer passes like savi he can score free kicks and also dribbles, if ademola lookman and the rest of the ex england hoping to get switch to Nigeria are still not available I will advise rohr to build a solid three man midfield wit nwakali etebo ndidi for the afcon iwobi chukwuez osihmen iheanacho aribo Sadiq ejuke onyekuru kalu should be rotating the front line position. Nothing can stop us from winning the nest 3 afcon.
Like NFF Like president Buhari. They will not do the needful things in their country, they will go extra lengths to woo better things outside Nigeria and refuse to do the necessary things in the country.
This is why Mr. Buhari went to the UK for treatment because there’s nothing we can call hospital in Nigeria.
We have abundant talent players in the NPFL, they won’t go there because they love ready-made things.
And we are expecting these selfish leaders to restructure Nigeria?
The youth have to come out and rescue Nigeria from these carbals.
No need to abuse any player that refuses to play for Nigeria.
It is a choice to make and for me I won’t blame none of them for turning their backs.
Nwakali is a play maker that his service is needed in Super Eagles but the gaffer and NFF are not seeing raw talent in Nwakali.
I will continue to appreciate Mr. Westerhof and Johannes Bonfrere for making solid points in the history of Nigerian football.
NFF and Oga Rohr should continue to beg these players to represent Nigeria because we don’t have players in Nigeria that are better enough to compete with the ones we have while president Buhari should continue to travel to the UK for treatment because we don’t have better Doctors and hospitals in Nigeria that he and his group can use in the country.
These players should be the ones begging Nigeria and not the other way around. Again, anything can happen in Nigeria. No wonder Mr. Amaju Pinnick went to UK to scout players lol.
He was begging Eze but the home based players are their waiting but because they don’t have money, power and godfather, the home based players have no hope of representing Nigeria at all levels. What a country.
The truth is bitter. What do I know.
Thank you Iwobi for your love. I do appreciate you a lot.
It is well. God bless Nigeria!!!
Nwaikalis form only just picked up recently or are we forgetting that he was dropped/loaned out from his first division club Huesca to lower division alcoron. they probably weren’t feeling is impact in the team. So was Rohr supposed to invite an underperforming player to the National team?I dont think so. I have said it before. If nwaikaili wants to play for the Super Eagles he needs to get back to his parent club, become more consistent and relevant in the team and up his game like he is doing at alcoron. If not players like olise and ejaria will come into the Super Eagles and no one will think about him anymore.
Iwobi needs to also improve his game at club level. We know you always do well for the Super Eagles but try to improve your game, goal returns and assist at the club you play for.
@sportsfan, you are absolutely right on both your comments regarding nwakali and iwobi. Iwobi especially needs to improve his game in Everton, I have said this b4, even deo has said it. He risk being a bench warmer if he continues this way, he is mostly brought in 15 mins to the end of games albeit he started the last game and played for 55 mins or thereabouts. Forget this excuse “he is playing to coaches instruction” people make for him, he needs to improve his goal return to be relevant for Everton. He is presently playing cause Calvin and Doucoure are injured, if they return and James and sigurdson are healthy, Iwobi will return to the bench. Also Ancelotti and Everton will go into the transfer market this summer to fortify the team and iwobi’s position is one area they will strengthen. He asked Ancelotti to play him in his favorite position which ancelotti did, i was hoping then he would grab it with both hands but he kept Falling my hand. We all say chukwueze needs to improve his final ball and add consistency to his game, I believe that goes for Iwobi as well. Iwobi’s talent isn’t in doubt but he needs to be more adventurous, he has the height, physique, pace, speed skills to be great but fails to capitalize on these qualities. We say Musa crosses are poor, iwobi’s is in the same category. His shooting is awkward and always off target (except when playing for 9ja). He needs to work on getting into the box more and using his frame and height to score with his head, work on his shooting (accuracy, power). I am a big fan of Iwobi’s and it hurts me when I see him on d bench and hurts me even more when given the opportunity and he doesn’t take it by imposing himself. I am worried that come summer he may end up down the pecking order when Everton enters the transfer market. Remember one thing in management, calling out your manager for not giving u the opportunity isn’t always great and when given the opportunity and you don’t take it is even worse as it gives the manager grounds to make u surplus to requirement. Iwobi in my view could easily be getting atleast 5 goals a season. Sometimes I watch him make runs into the box and attaches himself to defenders as if he is marking them instead of the other way around, he isn’t aggressive like Calvin or Richarlison for headers even though he is tall and built enough. Don’t get me wrong, iwobi has lots of qualities but he needs to better his goal return most importantly. My opinion tho