Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has sounded a note of warning to players picked from teams in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) for the Unity Cup, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Chelle picked eight players from the NPFL after going round league venues to scout for players in preparation for the tournament. He is set to name three of them in his starting lineup for today’s opener against Zimbabwe.
Ahead of the game, he urged the NPFL players to see the game as an avenue to force their way into reckoning and not just another game, or a holiday trip to London.
“Of course, this is a test. This is not a present. I didn’t give them a present. This is a bad present, because they come and play, if they are good, they stay, if they are bad?” he stated.
“This is not a question of Eric is nice, he gives some chance to the player. They deserve to be here cause they play well during one year. Now they are here, this is not the end, because this is the beginning. It is very difficult to enter the national team.”
He went ahead to state why certain players, who have been doing really well for their various teams in top leagues are not in the team.
Chelle said: “If you see all the positions, you want to play in centre back you have Calvin Bassey, Semi Ajayi, Benjamin Fredrick, Igor Ogbu, Fernandez,
“You want to play fullbacks, you have Ola Aina, Bruno Onyeamachi, Zaidu Sanusi, and Osayi-Samuel. You want to play in the midfield, you have the magician Alex Iwobi, the reality you have to be better than all of these guys to enter that team.”
“You want to play as a striker, you have Victor Osimhen the best striker in the world”, he ended up his explanation.
Ade Emmanuel
