Former International, Friday Elaho, has advised the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to include such conditions as winning the next Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup and involving the home-based players in the Eagles’ team as reasons why Super Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr’s contract can be renewed.
Elaho, who was embarrassed when Rohr said the country’s local league did not have quality players that could make his team, added that the same league has produced great players in the past, who were household names in the country.
Speaking to The Guardian during the week, Elaho stated that it didn’t sound well when a coach assembled Europe-based players to win a match and then claimed later that he had done enough to develop the country’s football without involving the players from the local league.
“For me, I will only rate Rohr’s performance 50 per cent since he took over as Eagles. The rating is even because he qualified us for both the AFCON and the World Cup. Aside from this, I did not see any other thing that he achieved for our football
“As an expatriate, what we want from him is beyond qualifying us for the AFCON and the World Cup because we have been doing that before he came. This is not about qualifying for the AFCON, it’s about winning it, get to the quarterfinal stage of the World Cup and also featuring local league players in international games regularly because that was what Clemens Westerhof did to our football,” he said, adding that was how some of our home-based players got deals abroad.
“Many of us who later went abroad to play football in the European leagues were discovered in the Nigeria Professional Football League and became household names because Westerhof did what was best for the country’s football and that was how many of us became stars around the world.
“We want Rohr to do the same thing to these NPFL players by exposing them in some of the Eagles’ matches rather than using 100 per cent foreign-based players. Enough of him telling us that there are no good players in our local league,” he said.
The former Eagles’ winger then added, “If Rohr doesn’t expose these boys now, then how does he want to develop our league? It is not about bringing in 24 players from Europe just to play a match and when you win, you say you are a good coach. At least six NPFL’s players with the rest from Europe will be the ideal thing to do as a coach of note. It is high time we let Rohr knew about this or he forgets about handling the Eagles,” he stated.
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