Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has a message for players in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) who are hoping to be a part of his team for the upcoming Unity Cup friendly tournament in London, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

The coach has already made it clear that players from the Nigerian domestic league will be given a chance to stake a claim for a shirt in the team. The tournament is scheduled for next month.

Chelle has so far toured two league venues in Nigeria, and yesterday he watched the game between Shooting Stars and Nasarawa United in Ibadan.

After the game , he left a message for players pushing for a spot saying it takes a lot of hard work to play for his team.

” We know it’s difficult to compete against players who are playing in the top leagues in Europe, but a top talent can be found anywhere. Hard work is what it takes to play for my team”, Chelle said.

” I have no room for lazy players. You have to be willing to run, be aggressive, press high up the pitch and also fight for the team. When we attack or defend we do so in numbers. So you must work hard to add to it”.

Are Samson

David Ozoh who recently agreed to play for the senior national team of Nigeria has bid farewell to his loan side Derby County following the end of the English Championship season, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

The 20 year old was on loan from Crystal Palace and made a huge impression getting as high as 33 games with two goals from his deep midfield role. He penned a message of farewell thanking the coaches, teammates, management and also fans for the support.

Coach of the Nigerian team Eric Chelle was largely impressed with his performances and swiftly convinced him to play for his team rather than wait for England, where he was a youth international for various levels.

Sources say he is not going back to Crystal Palace with a deal already in place for him elsewhere. It is part of why he won’t be involved with the senior national team of Nigeria for the upcoming Unity Cup.

We can exclusively reveal that Chelle however have him pencilled down for the high profile friendly game against Poland and Portugal respectively.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Hot on the heels of the permanent transfer of Nigeria international midfielder Frank Onyeka to newly promoted English Premier League side Coventry City, another player of the Nigerian team is on the move.

Onyeka spent the second half of the season on loan to Coventry from Brentford and was key in helping them gain promotion to the English Premier League.

The promotion automatically triggered a permanent deal for the 28 year old, making him the first signing of the Frank Lampard team as they prepare for life in the English Premier League.

Another Super Eagles player has also sealed a permanent transfer form his parent club after a fairly good time on loan as well.

Despite relegation to the second tier, Italian Serie A side Pisa has agreed to sign Ebenezer Akinsamiro on a permanent deal from Inter Milan for a fee worth €7m.

Inter Milan however inserted a buy back clause of €9m in the deal. An idea that shows they still have faith in his talents and are hopeful that he will develop better for a return.

Daniel Martins

Former coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has explained why his team Benin Republic failed to qualify for the World Cup like the Super Eagles of Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Benin Republic finished third in the group behind Nigeria and South Africa who finished top to secure the group’s automatic ticket to the world cup, while Nigeria picked a playoff spot but lost to DR Congo in the final.

Rohr while assessing the failure of his team, said the decision by CAF to move the home games of two teams in the group in Lesotho and Zimbabwe gave South Africa an edge.

” South Africa played just three away games against Nigeria, Rwanda and my team played in a neutral ground. The rest games were at home which is shocking because it gives them an edge”, the coach said.

” You have to wonder how CAF arrived at such a decision without considering the undue advantage it could give South Africa. In the end they made good use of it”, the coach was quoted as saying by the press in Benin Republic.

Ade Emmanuel

Hellas Verona defender Daniel Oyegoke has spoken out about the possibility of playing for the senior national team of Nigeria despite representing England at various youth levels.

Born in England to parents of Nigerian descent, the 23 year old started his career at Arsenal with loan spells at Brentford and MK Dons, but failed to make the senior team leading to his exit to Scottish side Hearts in 2024.

One year later he was signed by Italian Serie A side Hellas Verona, and has since blossomed into a full fledged member of the team in the Italian league. An injury setback reduced his number of games to just 15 this season.

Now back fully fit and aiming for his third season, his international future has become a topic with the head coach of Nigeria actively recruiting players with dual nationality.

” Yes I am a Nigerian and it means being eligible to play for Nigeria. One of the biggest football countries in the world”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com in a private chat on social media.

A source close to Chelle revealed that they are aware of his availability, and made attempts to have him in the squad for the AFCON before he unfortunately got injured. He was however silent on if they will once again push for him.

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has revealed how he got Rangers of Scotland defender Emmanuel Fernandez to play for the senior national team of Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

24 year old Fernandez was born in England to parents of Nigerian descent, making him eligible for both countries but Chelle wasted no time in handling him his first taste of international football.

He was invited to the Nigerian team for the games against Iran and Jordan respectively, and capped his first start in the colonies of Nigeria with a goal against Jordan after making his debut as a substitute against Iran.

At his club he was voted the player of the season, much to the delight of Chelle, who revealed how he got the defender who is linked with a summer transfer to play for Nigeria.

” Like many players that we have been watching. The time was right for him to play for us and when we approached him he accepted to come with us and he made a very good game. We watch a lot of players every week in Europe”, the coach revealed to OwnGoalNigeria.com.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha has revealed the circumstances that led to his decision to turn down the chance of playing for the senior national team of Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Onuoha represented England at various youth levels, most notably at U21 but was eligible to play for Nigeria through his parents, who were immigrants from the West African country.

However in 2010, when he was approached by the then coach of the Nigerian team to be a part of the team for the AFCON, and subsequently the world cup he declined.

Speaking in a podcast AllOutFootball on YouTube, the 39 year old who is now retired and works majorly as a television pundit, explained the reason behind his decision back then which he said gave him a reason to regret at the end of his career, but felt right at that time.

Below is excerpts from the interview.

So throughout my career there is a lot of things like, which I look back on. And I wish you would have done something differently, even though in the moment it made perfect sense to me. 

Coming through Man City Academy being a City supporter, nothing was more important to me than playing for City. Yeah, and this is the time when I think Mancini had just come in and played the last game under Mark Hughes, the previous manager. I was very much part of his process, then often Mancini came in. 

Then Dedryck Boyata was in the reserves, then all of a sudden Dedryck was in the first team, playing ahead of me and it’s weird. I found it really, really weird, because we are like halfway through the season, and at the time there was going to be an AFCON coming up and the manager of Nigeria was getting in contact with me, and he was saying he wanted me to come down for it and for me personally, I see myself as two different people because I am Macunian and I’ll say that, but very much Nigeria. 

Nigeria is home for me if I’m in a room full of people from Nigeria, I feel like, I know, every single one of them.

“That’s just how it is. For me, something about the culture is, like, that’s my family. That’s my bloodline. That’s what it is. Yeah, but from a football standpoint, I remember thinking, right? I’m currently not playing at City here, and I’m gonna go away for six weeks in January. I’m gonna come back. I’m gonna have nothing. I can’t. I don’t think I can do that. People saying, oh, you do it. You put yourself in a shop window./, but I said I need to focus on the side of things to stay in City.

Stayed at City and didn’t play anyway, but what made it worse was like, he is a family friend now relatively speaking. Yeah, but uh, someone like JJ Okocha with influence that he has, and to be fair, John Obi Mikel said a little bit as well. They put me in this bracket of people who would rather like beg to play for England than choose to play for the homeland Nigeria, and once you are paint with that brush. You are done.

And as I retired, like, I regret not playing international football, and if I’d have had a chance to do it for Nigeria, know how much you would have meant for people like me, yeah. But, you know, the decision was made in that time.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has given the biggest hint that on loan Crystal Palace midfielder David Ozoh has agreed to play for Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Ozoh like we exclusively reported has been in talks with Chelle on switching to the senior national team of Nigeria, after representing England at various youth levels.

Chelle has been impressed with his performance of the 20 year old in the English Championship for Derby County, where he is on a season long loan deal. He has made 32 appearances with two goals.

Reports say he is expected to return back to the English Premier League side at the end of the season, and Chelle has taken the first step towards getting him tied to Nigeria with an invitation to the Nigerian team for high profile friendly games against Poland and Portugal respectively in June.

Yesterday, the coach using his official and active social media handle on Instagram followed the midfielder. A clear indication that talks about playing for Nigeria was a success like we exclusively reported.