The chances of 36 year old Rangers of Scotland defender Leon Balogun playing for the Super Eagles again is very slim, following his recent snub in the list of players called up for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers games against Benin Republic and Rwanda respectively, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Balogun have been active for Rangers in all of their games played so far this season, but still wasn’t given a chance to stage a return to the team he last played for two years ago when they defeated Sao Tome and Principe 10-0 in an AFCON qualifiers.
Former coach of the team Jose Peseiro binned him after that game , although largely due to his poor run of games at club level during the tenure of the coach which lasted around 22 months, before his departure in February after leading the team to a second place finish at the AFCON.
As we exclusively reported he was among the 35 players who were provisionally invited to the team in a list prepared by the technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Austine Eguavoen.
Eguavoen who also trimmed the list to 23 players, which he passed to new coach of the team Bruno Labbadia left out Balogun hence denying him the chance to add to his 46 caps for the senior national team of Nigeria.
” I don’t think he (Balogun) will play for Nigeria again if he isn’t in the team now when he is playing regularly. As players of the team it’s something that we have talked about in the past because he makes us play how we want, but it’s in the power of the coach to decide and not us”, a player of the team said in a private conversation.
