Rohr in war-of-words with Pinnick over Super Eagles selection
Super Eagles boss Gernot Rohr has revealed why domestic league stars will struggle to make from his team as intends selecting only the best for the country.
The Franco-German has been heavily criticised for not handing local league players enough opportunity in the Eagles since becoming manager back in 2016.
At the moment, Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Ifeanyi Anaemena are the pair flying the local league flag in the Super Eagles squad for Wednesday’s 2021 African Cup of Nations qualifier against Benin Republic’s Squirrels at Godswill Akpabio Stadium.
President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick confirmed the country’s football governing body, will domesticate the German’s new contract and wants him to include more league players in the national team going forward.
However, Rohr insists he won’t be forced to select a player because of officials, but will only work with the best players available for selection.
He further stressed that late kick off the 2019-2020 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season is also one of the saw league stars missing from his squad.
“He didn’t speak on it at all, I know he sometimes has a different opinion like me but then, it is football. I never accept it to make a choice coming from the officials, my choice is the choice of sports arguments only, to take the best players,” the Franco-German tactician was quoted as saying to sports journalists.
“Unfortunately, we could not take more players from the local league because they did not play so it was difficult for them to be fit.
“And also the CHAN team, unfortunately, did not qualify that’s also a problem perhaps, the missed competition. I’m sure we have good players here and we see one of them coming from Enyimba, Ifeanyi [Anaemena] who replaced Idowu who has a passport problem.
Rohr disagrees with Pinnick over inclusion of home base players in Super Eagles – https://t.co/dWVUsuIIzO pic.twitter.com/sYPcZ3lMUU
— Sports Radio 88.9 Brila FM (@Brilafm889) November 13, 2019
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“Instead of calling someone from Europe in the last moment, we took this player and he has the chance like the Olympic squad, I watched them in their first game [vs Ivory Coast] and they have a chance but we can take one of them who will be able to show something.
“I know that some people cannot be happy about my choice but I can tell you it is my choice, it is always honest,” he summed up.