The senior national team of Nigeria had their first training session ahead of Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers game against Sierra Leone in Monrovia.

19 players took part in the session which was supervised by head coach of the team Jose Peseiro and his assistants. The Nigeria Professional Football League duo of Ebube Duru and Divine Nwachukwu were made to rest by the coach following their participation in the NPFL playoff.

Nwachukwu was ever present for Insurance of Benin, the same as Duru for Rivers United meaning they played a total of five games in between a space of nine days.

Meanwhile, all but the duo of Victor Osimhen and Bright Osayi-Samuel have arrived the camp of the team with the Turkey based Osayi-Samuel expected to arrive tomorrow after helping his team Fenerbahce win the Turkish cup.

No reason was given for the absence of top striker Victor Osimhen but camp sources say he will likely be with the team later today or tomorrow morning just in time before their afternoon session at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has revealed the reason why he dropped the trio of Chuba Akpom, Victor Boniface and Gift Orban in his squad of players for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sierra Leone.

The coach omitted the trio where among the top  scoring players for Nigeria in the recently concluded season with Akpom scoring 28 goals in the English Championship for Middlesbrough, while the duo of Orban and Boniface scored 20 and 22 goals respectively. Orban in particular got all of his goals within a period of four months following his move to Belgium side Gent from second division Norwegian side Stabæk.

Explaining their omission, Peseiro confirmed what OwnGoalNigeria.comearlier wrote about their absence in the squad saying it’s because of the policy of the NFF on inviting not more than 20 foreign based players to the team. In this case he had to make do with 19 players.

He said the above explanation hold forte for the duo of Orban and Boniface but Akpom just like we reported isn’t eligible due to the expiration of his Nigerian passport.

Speaking on the two Belgium based players he said he visited them and assured them of a spot in his team but because of the financial issues of the NFF, he didn’t include them. A situation which he said he has to understand with the football house.

“I visit them. I was in England, I was in Spain, I was in Italy. I visited them from my pocket. For that I will like to call them but if I call them, I will have to drop some of these players like you know I can only call 19 foreign based players. I believe in the local players but our federation (NFF) is not in a good financial situation for that, so because of that I can only call 19 players from outside Nigeria”, he explained after today’s training.

Speaking further, he assured them that they will be part of his subsequent squads especially if they maintain their current club form before the next round of games. He also took out time to explain the invitation of captain of the team Ahmed Musa who hasn’t seen lot of action for Turkish side Sivasspor.

Musa according to Peseiro is a winger while the aforementioned duo are strikers. He said including them ahead of Musa will mean taking five strikers to Monrovia for the game against Sierra Leone. A game which he said he stuck with the 19 players who have been in his team since he took over a year ago.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

When the list of players called up to the senior national team of Nigeria by coach Jose Peseiro for the AFCON qualifiers game against Sierra Leone was made public, three names were conspicuously missing from the list of players.

The trio of Gift Orban of Belgium side Gent, Victor Boniface of Union Saint-Gilloise another Belgium team and that of Terem Moffi who plays Ligue 1 were all not listed in the 23 man squad, much to the surprise of a lot of people.

Last season, they combined for a total of 63 goals with Orban hitting 20 for Gent, the team he joined in January, Boniface had 22 goals while Moffi ended the season with a combined total of 21 goals both of Lorient and Nice, the team he joined in January.

Peseiro was left handicapped by the new policy of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) which is that only twenty foreign based players should be called up for any game with the remaining coming from the local scene.

The idea was to save cost due to the rising cost of air tickets but with the players on holiday and most of them in Nigeria, the coach went ahead to list more than the required number of foreign based players and submitted to the NFF explaining why.

His explanation fell on deaf ears and he was asked to stick to the instruction of just twenty foreign based players leaving him with no option but to take out the trio of Orban, Boniface and Moffi.

While the duo of Boniface and Orban were sacrificed for other senior players considering the fact that a win is needed badly by the team and experience will be crucial, Moffi was dropped in order to create space for Awoniyi who ended the season on a high for Nottingham Forest.

Osas Mahawi

The star midfielder of the U20 team of Nigeria Daniel Daga is thorn between joining AC Milan or their city rivals Inter Milan, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Daga was one of the standout player for the U20 team of Nigeria at the U20 World Cup in Argentina and as expected his form has alerted top teams in Europe with the Milan based giants leading the chase.

He recently signed to be represented by the agent of AC Milan midfielder Victor Eletu, his teammate at the U20 World Cup fueling speculation that a move to the same team like Eletu is on the cards.

While that is the case, sources close to the agent told OwnGoalNigeria.com that the 16 year old who will can only sign a school boy contract until he turns 18 will arrive in Italy for talks with Inter Milan as well.

The idea is to weigh up the best move for his career before a decision will be reached. Already documentation regarding the move has started in earnest with his club One Rocket also involved in making the move possible.

Daniel Martins

German Bundesliga side Stuttgart are in the lead in the race for the future of Nigeria international forward Paul Onuachu who wants out of relegated English Premier League side Southampton after just six months at the club.

Onuachu joined the team in the January transfer window from Belgium side Genk but the move hasn’t worked out as planned and following the relegation of the team, he is among the players who will be allowed to leave as part of the cost cutting measures of the team.

Stuggart have long been on the trail of the lanky forward with attempts to sign him two summers ago amounting to nothing as the player has his mind fixed on playing for a team in the English Premier League.

They now see this as the perfect time to make a swoop for the 27 year old with talks already held with his representatives on personal terms. An agreement per what OwnGoalNigeria.com understands has been reached.

The idea is to have him on a season long loan with the option of signing him permanently at the end of the loan deal. A loan fee of around €1m will be tabled to Southampton who are not opposed to the forward leaving on temporary basis.

Daniel Martins

The camp of the senior national team of Nigeria is already home to 19 players ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers game against Sierra Leone on Saturday in Monrovia.

Nigeria need a win to book a place at next year Africa Cup of Nations after picking up three wins from their first four games of the series. The last of which was the 1-0 win away to Guinea Bissau courtesy of a goal from Moses Simon.

Coach Jose Peseiro will lead the team out for their first training session later this evening with all 19 players expected to be in attendance, although more players would have probably joined the team before then.

Per the official handle of the team on social media, four players are yet to arrive at the camp of the team as at the time of this report and it includes captain of the team Ahmed Musa, top striker Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze and Bright Osayi-Samuel.

While Osayi-Samuel played a game on Sunday hence probably why he isn’t in the camp yet, the same can’t be said about the other players. For instance the duo of Chukwueze and Osimhen have been on holiday following the conclusion of their respective leagues two weeks ago.

Below is the list of players in camp.

Ekong, Lookman, Aribo, Iwobi, Bassey, Ajayi, Akpoguma, Omeruo, Ndidi, Iheanacho, Awoniyi, Simon, Adeleye, Sochima, Ojo, Duru, Samuel, Divine, Onyeka in. 19 Players in camp.

Players of the U20 team of Nigeria are back in the country following their campaign at the U20 World Cup in Argentina, where they were knocked out in the quarter final by South Korea.

The Ladan Bosso led team gave a good account of themselves at the tournament with a group stage win over tournament’s finalist Italy and also knocking out the host Argentina in the round of 16.

Some of the players have expressed their displeasure at the way their welfare was handled by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) saying the coach of the team was the reason why they didn’t go on strike. He said the same disgrace Nigeria faced in 2019 and also the 2017 U20 team would have happened again if not for the coach.

” In camp we got to a point where we said enough is enough and we don’t play until we get our bonuses which they said it’s $2,000 for a win. We only got $2,000 despite winning three games and not even a single penny was given to us as camp allowance even appearance fee wasn’t paid”, one of the players told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

Another player said the coach in the company of a backroom staff of the team explained to them how the 2017 team went on strike on the eve of the second leg of their qualifiers game and ended up not making it to the U20 Africa Cup of Nations. He said reference was also made about the 2019 team at the World Cup, who refused to leave their hotel after their elimination thereby bringing shame to the image of the country.

” Bosso kept on drumming it in our ears that doing well at the tournament will be more beneficial to our careers in the future than any financial benefit we will get from the NFF. We almost lost it but he kept us on our toes with stories of the 2017 U20 team and that of 2019. It wasn’t easy at all”, he said.

Damian Waziri

The senior national team of Nigeria have started training ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers game against Sierra Leone in Monrovia on Sunday, 18 June at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium, the adopted home ground of the Lone Stars.

One player who was missing from the list of 23 players called up by the coach is the top scorer in the English Championship Chuba Akpom. The 27 year old ended the season with the award of the top scorer in the division after scoring 28 goals and he was also voted the best player in the division.

He was said to be an obvious candidate for the team against Sierra Leone, which would have been his first call up to the senior national team of Nigeria since his switch of nationality was approved by world football governing body FIFA.

That wasn’t the case as he was once again not listed for the game meaning he will have to wait a little longer for his first call up to the senior national team of Nigeria. OwnGoalNigeria.com sought to know the reason behind his omission.

” This time around, it is passport related because his Nigerian passport has expired. He is yet to renew it and that is why he wasn’t called up. From what I know he was in the list of players until it was discovered that his Nigerian passport isn’t valid.  Hopefully he will be in the next squad”, a team source told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

Damian Waziri

When the list of the players called up by the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro was made public, a lot of Nigerians expressed their displeasure at the omission of some players at the expense of those who many think don’t merit a spot in the team.

OwnGoalNigeria.com editor in chief Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman takes a look at the list and how the coach of the team appears to have totally lost the plot when it comes to the idea of calling up players to the senior national team of Nigeria.

Goalkeepers: Adebayo Adeleye (Hapoel Jerusalem, Israel); Victor Sochima (Rivers United); Olorunleke Ojo (Enyimba FC)

Mowiz: What is shocking in this selection is the fact that Peseiro knows that the third goalkeeper in the list might not get to play. So why not hand it to the U20 goalkeeper who is coming off the back of a fantastic world cup campaign with Nigeria. Again he has been a part of the team prior to now.

Defenders: William Ekong (Watford FC, England); Calvin Bassey (Ajax FC, The Netherlands); Kevin Akpoguma (TSG Hoffenheim, Germany); Chidiebube Duru (Rivers United); Oluwasemilogo Ajayi (West Bromwich Albion, England); Kenneth Omeruo (CD Leganes, Spain); Zaidu Sanusi (FC Porto, Portugal); Bright Osayi-Samuel (Fenerbahce FC, Turkey).

Mowiz – One has to wonder the idea behind calling up five centre backs for one game and only one right back in Bright Osayi-Samuel. Meanwhile the team has a right back in Empoli’s Tyronne Ebuehi who plays in a league rated higher than any player in the list and a regular at that. Even Osayi-Samuel hasn’t played as many league games in Turkey like the 27 year old in Italy this season.

Midfielders: Joseph Ayodele-Aribo (Southampton FC, England); Alex Iwobi (Everton FC, England); Divine Nwachukwu (Bendel Insurance); Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City, England); Frank Onyeka (Brentford FC, England)

Mowiz- Maybe one can say this area is a bit balanced but when you consider that Aribo hasn’t played just three games not up to 90 minutes. Then it’s easy to ask why not leave him out for a certain Daniel Daga is the Nigeria U20 team who was by far one of the best players in the Nigerian team at the World Cup? Only Peseiro can explain this decision.

Forwards: Moses Simon (Nantes FC, France); Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal FC, Spain); Ademola Lookman (Atalanta FC, Italy); Victor Osimhen (SSC Napoli, Italy); Taiwo Awoniyi (Nottingham Forest, England); Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City, England); Ahmed Musa (Sivasspor K, Turkey)

Mowiz – Aside from the inclusion of Musa which one can say is due to his role as captain of the team, every other name on the list can pass as a worthy Inclusion. Maybe the exclusion of Terem Moffi is harsh and the decision to leave out the duo of Gift Orban and Victor Boniface will make some to scratch their head. One still can’t argue about the inclusion of the players picked by the coach.

Final Verdict: One thing is obvious. Peseiro needs help because some of the decisions are straightforward but when madness steps in, nothing seems easy anymore.