The performances of players of the senior national team of Nigeria hasn’t been the best lately and it has no doubt raised a whole lot of concerns, especially as they are looking to bounce back from the disappointment of missing out on the spot at the recently concluded World Cup in Qatar.

Nigeria suffered a heavy 0-4 loss to Portugal in their last friendly game before the World Cup. That results means they have lost all four of their friendly games they have played under new coach Jose Peseiro. They have won just two of the games he has handled the team.

The wins came against Sierra Leone (2-1) and Sao Tome and Principe (10-0) respectively in the AFCON qualifiers. Ironically the both games are the only competitive games they have played under Peseiro. They will be back in action in March.

Ahead of the return, former Nigeria international Sunday Mba, who scored the lone goal against Burkina Faso that handed the AFCON 2013 title to Nigeria has launched a scathing attack on the players presently in the team.

Mba made his feeling known during an interview session with another ex Nigeria international in Ifeanyi Udeze who now works as a radio presenter for Brila FM. He called out the players lackluster attitude and even said some of them are not in the team on merit. The interview was conducted in pidgin English, below is the quote as translated by our editorial team.

“Our Super Eagles are not making us happy. This team is playing like they don’t care about the national team. Some of them do not deserve to be in the team and some do not merit the games they are playing”, he stated.

“I doubt how they get selected. They don’t play entertaining or captivating football and they get you disappointed when you watch them”, he rounded up saying.

The father of former England youth international Dominic Iorfa Jnr says his son is now ready to represent Nigeria seven years after turning down an invitation to be a part of the Nigeria U23 team.

Dominic Iorfa senior stopped his son from honouring a call by former Nigeria U23 coach Samson Siasia in 2016. Back then he was making the step up at English Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers.

“I wouldn’t want anybody to misunderstand me. The truth is that my son is not ripe for U-23. He is just 19 years, so he needs more time to mature to that level,” he said in Makurdi back in 2016.

“Moreover, the timing is not good for the young man. He is just getting into the line up of Wolves and there are so many matches for him to play between now and January”.

He went ahead to play for England at several youth levels including the U20 and even trained with the senior team when they were short of numbers while in camp. The invitation has somehow stopped and now at the age of 27 he is gradually picking up form at League One side Sheffield Wednesday.

Iorfa has played a role in their fine start to the season and will likely be involved some more as they bid to gain promotion to the English Championship following relegation to the League One last season. His father believe he is now ready for senior international football with Nigeria.

Explaining why he didn’t allow him to play for Nigeria initially, he said a former Nigeria international, the politics of the national team made him keep his son from the national team but believe at 27, he is now fully ready to cope with whatever that might happen.

“Every person will have ambition to play for his country but you know I remember when I came to the scene in 1984, people like you, Paul Bassey, Isaac Imafidon and a lot of people promoted me during my early days. If you can remember the politics of the national team, if you are not careful it can cause a lot of damages”, he told veteran journalist Mitchel Obi.

“I remember even when I was coming on the scene very strongly everybody termed me as a Ghanaian. They stopped me from going to the national team that I am from Ghana and not Nigeria.

“My son would have been a very good asset to the national team but when you look at the process, because I have been part and parcel of it. As far as he is happy where he is, I don’t want any issue that tomorrow you are frustrated to a point. So because of those reasons when you are grown up, he is 27 now. He was born in 1995.

“I would love for him to play for Nigeria now but I can not go and beg them to invite him because this is someone when he was coming on the scene played England U16, U17, U18 and the U20. He even represented England in the European Championship which they lost in the final to Germany in Holland”, he stated.

On if he will be reaching out to the authorities to hand a call up to his son, he said he won’t do that because the profile of his son is enough to get him into the team if Nigeria want him.

“So if you look at it, you can’t have that kind of ability and you will be begging Nigeria for your son to come and play, so at the end of the day it’s not something I can be holding on as long as far as he is happy, you can not force him to do what he doesn’t want to do. So let everything happen naturally, anytime they are happy they can call him. He is playing very well now”, he rounded up saying.

The camp of the Nigeria U20 team will reach a crucial stage next week when the invited players based abroad will begin to arrive ahead of the naming of the final list of players for the tournament in Egypt.

Bosso is currently drilling the players who were on his 35 man list released last week, the only exemption for now are the players playing for teams in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). They are expected to arrive camp next week.

Among the players who have been given an invitation to be a part of the team, five players who were born abroad have been invited as well with two coming from the youth team of English Premier League side Arsenal, one from Crystal Palace and two from Norwich City.

Areenal’s Joel Ideho who was signed from Ajax two summers ago will be in the camp to further strengthen the options on the flanks. He was born in the Netherlands. His teammate goalkeeper Ovie Ejeheri will also be in the camp.

Crystal Palace forward who was born in England and has scored three goals in nine Premier League two games this season has also been extended an invitation. David Aziaya, Kenny Coker both born in England are also expected in the camp of the team the next week.

” We have to treat them as Nigerians regardless of where they were born. If they are better than the ones I have here, I won’t hesitate to pick them. It’s all in the process of trying to build a team that will serve the senior national team of Nigeria in the future”, Bosso told OwnGoalNigeria.com while defending their invitation.

” I read everyday that we are in talks with one player or multiple players over playing for Nigeria. That won’t be an issue if we catch them young”, he rounded up saying.

Head coach of the Nigeria U20 team Ladan Bosso has revealed that representative of some players are putting him under pressure to pick their clients in his squad ahead of the U20 Africa Cup of Nations, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Bosso’a team are currently in Abuja for the second phase of camping where 35 players were officially invited to fight for the 26 slots available in the final squad for the tournament in Egypt.

Despite the coach insisting on training with the numbers he invited about 20 other players who were not invited turned up uninvited, and he allowed them to train seperately from his invited players before a decision will be made on their addition to the main team.

Speaking on the difficulties he is facing in picking his final list, the coach revealed he already turned down a bribe of €100,000 ( 81 million Naira), insisting that he is not going to be swayed by money when he decides on the players in his final squad.

“Since we opened camp, a lot of football agents have been making overtures to me”, he was quoted as saying by www.InsideNews247.com.

“In fact, just recently, some European football agents approached me and offered me 100,000 Euros (about 88 million Naira) that they’ll be sole rights owners of all the players in the Nigerian U-20 team should they get any offer from clubs during the championship in Egypt.

“Of course, I turned down the offer, because my team selection is based on merit.

“Our preparation is a continuous process of substitution by elimination ”

” I want to be held responsible, should the team fails, which I am not praying for to happen ”

“I don’t delegate my duties to my assistant coaches. I am always involved in the team’s build-up and preparations to the championship ”

While Nigerians see the Crystal Palace duo of Michael Olise and Ebere Eze as the two players the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria should focus on convincing them to switch allegiance to his team, the coach appears to have found a jewel in a certain 17 year old.

Peseiro was recently in England to monitor and also interact with Nigerian players but we exclusively gathered that he also held talks with players eligible for the senior national team of Nigeria as well as players recommended to him, who are relatively unknown but talented.

One of the players is Crystal Palace David Ozoh, the teenager also come highly recommended by the technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Austine Eguavoen. They spoke after Crystal Palace 0-3 loss to Fulham, a game Eguavoen watched.

Peseiro was briefed on his ability and the coach instantly became an admirer, and has penciled the midfielder’s name for further scouting and also monitoring as he makes his progress through the youth ranks of the English Premier League side.

He was named in a Premier League matchday squad for the very first time in Palace’s recent win at Bournemouth with coach Patrick Viera speaking on how much he love what he has seen so far in him.

“He has really grown since he’s been with us,” Vieira noted. “He’s been training with us [the first-team] really often, and adjusting himself to the tempo of the game, but he’s got the strength, the power and the technical quality to train with us every day.

“There is still a long way [to go for him]. He is just 17, and he was playing last year in the Under-18s, so he was playing up in the Under-21s. Now, he’s training with the first-team.

“He found it really difficult in the first couple of weeks but now he’s starting to get used to it. We have to give him time to grow and get used to being around the first-team players before asking him [for] too much.

“You have some young players who have a lot of attributes, but when they are around first-team players, they don’t have the courage or personality to play with this kind of freedom, so you’re looking at all those kinds of aspects.

“David’s been really good so far.”