The decision of coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr to leave out Simy Nwankwo who is scoring for fun in the Serie A for struggling side Crotone has been explained by the coach.
Simy last played for Nigeria in 2018 with Rohr overlooking him for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in favour of the trio of Odion Ighalo, Paul Onuachu and Victor Osimhen.
Ighalo retired from the team after the 2019 AFCON but there was still no spot for Simy and with the emergence of players like Terem Moffi, Sadiq Umar and a back to form Iheanacho he might still not get a look in despite scoring 17 Serie A goals this season.
Rohr hinted at ignoring the lanky forward in his squad for the World Cup qualifiers which starts in June while explaining why he wasn’t called up for the earlier games played this year by the team.
“You know that I invited Simy already for the last World Cup and he was with us in Russia and he came in sometimes,” Rohr said.
“Now we have so many strikers, unfortunately, we cannot play with five centre forwards. When you see the centre forwards we have already, the competition is so big that it’s not easy for anybody to come to our team.
“Simy I know him very well, and so I didn’t have to invite him again to know how he is.
“The last matches were the last opportunity also for me to see some new players because now we go to the World Cup and now will be too late to make experimentation.
“I know already Simy very well; he is a very good player.”
