There is the likelihood of Stanley Nwabali losing his position as the first choice goalkeeper of the senior national team of Nigeria in the event that he fails to get a club, before their next international engagement.

Nwabali is presently without a club after leaving Chippa United of South Africa by mutual consent. He is now waiting for offers from clubs before the end of the season.

He has been the first choice of the team for over two years, holding off Maduka Okoye who plays for Italian Serie A side Udinese and also Francis Uzoho of Omomia Nicosia of Cyprus. But it could change in March.

In the likelihood that he fails to get a club, he won’t be a part of the Super Eagles team for the games in March according to a source close to the coach of the Nigerian team Eric Chelle.

” Chelle won’t want to start what will be a bad precedent. Any player who is inactive will be left out of the team. It was why Terem Moffi didn’t make the squad for the AFCON. So if Stanley doesn’t get a club before March. I think there will be a new goalkeeper for the team”, he told owngoalnigeria.com in an exclusive chat.

The Austrian Football Association are refusing to allow Nigeria to have a free run at Borussia Dortmund star Carney Chukwuemeka whose international future is up in the air, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

The former Chelsea and Aston Villa player was born in Eisenstadt, Austria, to Nigerian parents, but grew up in England where he earned caps at various youth levels up to U20 level, and was part of the under-19 side that won the 2022 European Championship.

However the 22 year old failed to make the step up to the senior national team of England, leaving him eligible for a change of nationality to either Nigeria or Austria.

Nigeria took the lead with head coach Eric Chelle holding talks with Carney on how he will be better off pledging his international future to Nigeria, using the rise of another former England youth international in Ademola Lookman as evidence.

Austria have now responded to the approach by Nigeria with an approach hoping to convince him to instead pledge his future to them. They are hoping that the chance of playing at the next world cup will be enough to lure him.

For now he is still undecided, but the fact that Nigeria won’t be at the world cup could hand Austria an edge.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

The pending petition from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) challenging the eligibility of some players in the squad of DR Congo that defeated Nigeria on penalties, to grab the sole ticket to represent Africa at the intercontinental playoff for a spot at the world cup.

After the defeat in November, Nigeria acting on a tip off from sources in DR Congo decided to file a petition against around seven players of the team of their opponent who have dual nationality.

The players were duly cleared by FIFA to switch nationality to DR Congo, but the NFF argue that the process that led to the issuance of the passport used for the clearance was fraudulent.

According to the General Secretary (GS) of the football house they have submitted the evidences to FIFA, and are hopeful of a favourable outcome that will see Nigeria take the place of DR Congo in next month’s intercontinental playoff.

“FIFA rules say once you have a passport of your country, you’re eligible, and that is why they were cleared,” Sanusi explained. “But our concern is that FIFA was deceived into clearing them. It is not FIFA’s responsibility to enforce Congo’s domestic regulations; FIFA acts based on what is submitted to it. What we are saying is that the process was fraudulent,” he said while explaining the decision to submit the petition.

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has revealed the importance of Moses Simon to his team after his role in helping the team finish third at the recently concluded AFCON in Morocco, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Simon who started only two games at the tournament is the second vice captain of team , and started all of the games under Chelle before the start of the tournament.

The decision by Chelle to reduce his role to that of a substitute was put to the coach in an interview with AfterRMC, and he defended the decision explaining the importance of the Paris FC winger.

He said, “Moses Simon is a powerful left winger, and that’s the main thing he contributes to the team. He does well in one-on-one and two-on-two situations. In Nigeria, we usually play with a diamond.

When we play deeper, we use a flat 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 formation, and he usually helps us keep stability on the wing and add width to our play.

“When you play through the wings, the opposing team’s defense moves toward the center, and then you can spread the play back out to the sides using Simon, Chukwueze, or Ejuke.”

Among the new players head coach of the Super Eagles Eric Chelle plans to introduce to the team in the second phase of his project with the Super Eagles is Trabzonspor defender Chibuike Nwaiwu, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively report.

Nwaiwu has been on the radar of the coach since his days in Austria, where he was with Wolfsberger FC but Chelle felt he wasn’t ready yet and other options were ahead of him around that time.

However all of that has changed significantly with the coach now fully impressed with the level he is playing now in Turkey for a top team like Trabzonspor.

He has played in all of their six games since his signing, making four consecutive appearances in the league and the rest two coming in the cup.

The former Enyimba defender is seen by Chelle as a reliable back up and long term replacement for Semi Ajayi, who is already 32 and has a history of persistent injury issues. He is presently out injured for the third time this season.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Nigerians woke up to the news linking the head coach of the senior national team Eric Chelle to the vacant managerial job at French Ligue 1 side Marseille, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Chelle led the Super Eagles to a third place finish at the recently concluded AFCON playing an enterprising brand of football that won them admirers. A brand that made the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to insist on retaining him despite not meeting the target of getting to the final.

However there have been no advancement on extending his contract beyond the one year left, but the National Sports Commission (NSC) has instructed the NFF to open talks on an extension to give the coach at least two years deal.

With little or no progress made in that direction, the job of Marseille became vacant yesterday night following the departure of head coach Roberto De Zerbi, and reports says Chelle was offered by intermediaries to the hierarchy of Marseille.

” It’s not true. Chelle has been in the news lately after his podcast interview. So a random blogger who wants to cash in on his trend linked him with the job to generate views and clicks. There is no substance to it and Chelle will continue as Super Eagles coach”, a source close to the coach revealed.

When the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) decsiesd to part ways with former coach Finidi George they didn’t have any idea that Eric Chelle will be his replacement, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Finidi was sacked after the Super Eagles 1-1 draw against South Africa and a 1-2 defeat to Benin Republic in the 2026 world cup qualifiers. His sacking came barely a month after he was appointed as replacement for Jose Peseiro.

He was one of the assistants of Peseiro when they reached the final of the AFCON two years ago, before losing 1-2 to the host Cote d’Ivoire in the final.

Following his sack , the NFF contacted as many as three coaches who declined to take up the job. They even officially announced Bruno Labbadia as the new coach without reaching an agreement on certain terms of the deal, which later led to its collapse.

Next in line was Swedish coach Janne Anderson, but again he backed out of the job not convinced that it’s a project that can succeed. He confirmed he wasn’t sure if taking up the job at that time was the right idea.

NFF still not giving up pitched their tent to celebrated French coach Herve Renard, who is famous in Africa for his feat on the continent but despite receiving an offer that he termed the best financially. He opt against taking up the job permanently.

At that junction, the NFF had no option but to turn to Eric Chelle, who has remained on the shortlist while they went in search of other coaches. Chelle wasted no time in accepting the role, leaving his job as coach of Algerian side MC Oran.

A football agent who works closely with the NFF revealed all of the above in an exclusive chat. ” They never really wanted Chelle not because of his ability but his nationality. Some board members said why will a Malian be the coach of Nigeria?. It took the intervention of the National Sports Commission (NSC) for Chelle to be appointed”, he said.

” Today I see Gusau celebrating the improvement under Chelle like he was his idea from the start. That isn’t true but it was only Chelle that accepted the job after the sacking of Finidi”.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle says at least four new players will be a part of his team, when they regroup for their next international engagement.

The coach who led the team to a third place finish at the AFCON wants to start the second phase of his project with the team by injecting new players into the team.

He is particular about young players playing in leagues like Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Scotland and the Netherlands. The idea is to discover another player like Benjamin Fredrick who was handed his debut as a player of the U21 team of Brentford.

” You see Nigerian players are everywhere. We took young players from Belgium, Italy and England last year into the team and you can see that they are good. There are a lot of them at least four that I know from not too popular leagues who will be with us”, the coach revealed.

” We got Benjamin Fredrick in England during the Unity Cup. There are a couple of them who are highly talented playing in Czech Republic, Scotland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and Belgium. We want to see how we can get them into the setup early”.

Chelle refused to reveal the identity of the players in his sight, but it’s certain that they will be part of the team this year with the team set to play so many friendly games.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman