A lot has been said about the non involvement of Cyriel Dessers in the team that defeated Sierra Leone 2-1 in Abuja and set a new record with the 10-0 thrashing of Sao Tome and Principe in Morocco.
Dessers was capped by Nigeria two years ago but he is yet to play in any competitive game meaning he is still eligible for the senior national team of Belgium, where he was born and once trained with their youth team.
Belgium are currently looking for options in attack and with Dessers finishing as top scorer in the Europa Conference League with ten goals for Feyenoord last season he was seen as an option. That led to talks of Nigeria needing to cap tie him by playing him in a competitive game.
That wasn’t the case as Jose Peseiro had him on the bench for two straight games despite his goal in the 1-2 friendly loss against Mexico in the United States of America.
” Dessers was prime to play against Sierra Leone in Abuja then we had two decisions to make. Change the formation by switching to a three man midfield. Towards the end he was to be introduced but William Troost Ekong got injured and we had to bring in a defender”, Peseiro told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
” Away at Sao Tome and Principe he was to come in for Victor Osimhen but again Calvin Bassey signalled to us that he is injured hence we brought on Leon Balogun. He will play games and lots of it for Nigeria but that too is down to his form because we have huge competition for spots”, he stated.
