Nigeria is a country blessed with talents across the world playing football and wishing to represent their homeland. Only a few have gotten that opportunity to represent their country. This, however, does not mean the rest are not doing great things where they are.
This a good point to take stock of the players flying the Nigeria green and white flag. Beyond country pride, this infographic shows that there’s also lot of money at stake as well. The most notable top five will be talked about here.
John Mikel Obi- As team captain for the 2019 African, Cup of Nations, Mikel has served Nigeria diligently well and has played at the biggest level in club football.
Winning the Champions League and Europa League with Chelsea before moving to China and now Trabzonspor in Turkey. Mikel is one of the few players that have served Nigeria at all age-grade tournaments and still went ahead to captain the side. He called it a quit with national team football after the just concluded AFCON that the country finished third.
Odion Ighalo
The Shanghai Shenhua striker was a key member of the Super Eagles to 2019 AFCON, finishing as the top goalscorer with five goals. Myphonefootball has confirmed that he also called it a quit with national team football after the AFCON final and this signal the end at national team football for the former Watford striker who the coach, Gernot Rohr has told he could return if he changes his mind in future.
Alex Iwobi
Iwobi is the only player in Nigeria that currently plays for a top-six club in England. The Arsenal forward is the nephew to former Captain, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha. Iwobi has shown his quality in another dimension while playing for the Eagles as he plays from the middle as the number 10. This is a bit different from how he plays at Arsenal as he mostly plays from the left side of the midfield. With his return for the new season at the North London side, it will be interesting to see how he is being used by Unai Emery.
Wilfred Ndidi
Regarded as the most underrated midfielders in the Premier League, Wilfred Ndidi does his job diligently in the middle of the park with a little spark. He was part of the team that played at AFCON and was very key to the midfield of the team. Playing for Leicester and serving mostly as the replacement for Ngolo Kante at the club showcase the quality he has. The new season will be another challenge for him at Leicester and show once again what he is capable of doing.
Oghenekaro Etebo
The Stoke City player of the season for the 2018/19 season was the partner of Wilfred Ndidi in the middle of the park for the Eagles from the 2018 world cup till 2019 AFCON. Etebo has shown that he has the stamina to withstand any pressure in the middle and he’s ready to give his all for his country.
He is seen by many as the player that took Mikel’s role in the team and has to justify starting ahead of the captain and also shown that the team is covered going forward with the retirement of Mikel.
