Coach of French Ligue 1 side Nantes Antoine Kombouare says the club know it’s impossible for them to persuade Moses Simon to shun representing Nigeria at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations next year in Cameroon.

The tournament was shifted to next year with Nigeria among the teams set to take part. It has already set some of their key players against their clubs in Europe, who see the period of the tournament as crucial in the quest to achieve their goals for the season.

Simon is seen as the one who makes things work for Ligue 1 side Nantes with his five assists the highest in the league so far. His departure is one that the club is unhappy about but they are helpless according to the coach of the team.

” He (Simon) loves to play for Nigeria . We wish we can keep him because it’s hard to imagine our team without him but we know it’s impossible. So we will accept it as one of the things in life that one can’t change”, the coach said .

Uche Ikpeazu says he is still hopeful of getting a chance with the senior national team of Nigeria after turning down another invitation from the senior national team of Uganda.

26 year old Ikpeazu was first invited by  Uganda but the games were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic but a lot has happened between then and now that has seen him have a change of heart over his international future.

He has already informed the handlers of the Ugandan team that he won’t be available for further selection as he aims to gain the attention of coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr by scoring goals for English Championship side Middlesbrough.

With two goals in nine games this season. He strongly believe that if he improves on his goal return, it will be impossible for Rohr to ignore him despite the options available to the coach in attack.

” I have to continue scoring like on a scoring run and it will give me an edge to fulfill my dream of playing for the senior national team of Nigeria. It is what to do when you want to break into a team with the type of attackers Nigeria have at the moment”, he said.

Crystal Palace midfielder Michael Olise wasn’t approached by coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr over the idea of playing for Nigeria ahead of France, England and Algeria.

Sources close to the midfielder insist he was shocked to be named on standby in the Super Eagles squad for their AFCON qualifiers in March as no discussion was held over his invitation to the team.

” From what I was told by the player there was no talk with Rohr. Olise didn’t speak with him before he was named in the squad for the AFCON qualifiers in March. He didn’t honour the game and rightly so because that isn’t how to go about calling a player with dual nationality”, the source told OwnGoalNigeria.com in an exclusive chat.

Olise who represented France at the Toulon Youth tournament still fancies his chance with the French team but there are indications that he is keen on playing for Algeria, the country of his mother.

” I take that as false. His dream is still to represent France and working with Patrick Viera at Crystal Palace will bring him closer to his goal by the time he gets a regular run in the team. England is another option but that looks like a distant reality”, he concluded.

Former Nigeria international forward Yakubu Aiyegbeni has tone down his attack on the coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr following the Super Eagles 2-0 win over Central Africa Republic (CAR) in the World Cup qualifiers.

Yakubu ranks as one of the foremost critic of the coach as he believe he hasn’t improved the team since he was appointed as coach in 2016. According to Yakubu , the team hasn’t shown any meaningful sign of progress.

However he has now backtracked on those claims after the winning over CAR insisting that the current crop of players couple with the way the team is playing at the moment puts them in a good position to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“I think with the players we have in the team like [Wilfred] Ndidi as well as [Victor] Osimhen the striker, we have a chance to qualify,” he told Goal.

“I’m not scared but I know we’ll qualify because we’ve got the players. We’ve struggled in the past to qualify for the World Cup.

“But I think with this team and the way they play now, and the countries they’re playing against now, I think we’ve got chances to pull through.”

Former coach of Warri Wolves Mansur Abdullahi says the decision to make Joseph Yobo the first assistant to Gernot Rohr isn’t paying off as he the former Super Eagles captain isn’t fit for the job.

Yobo was appointed as assistant coach to the German coach following the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to part ways with Imama Amapakabo two years ago.

His position was fixed as second assistant with another coach to work with Rohr as first assistant, the delay in employing a substantive first assistant saw Yobo step up to the role on temporary base.

However, Mansur believe it isn’t working as Yobo isn’t trained to be a coach terming his appointment as one which was made possible by the fact that he is a former footballer, which he said doesn’t mean he will be a good coach.

“The reason Yobo was appointed assistant to Gernot Rohr was because is a former star player and captain, but being a former star player doesn’t necessarily make a good coach.

So, Yobo can’t give Rohr the technical help he needs to succeed with the Super Eagles because he doesn’t have any coaching training to be a good assistant to Rohr,” Mansur was quoted as saying by Leadership.

Former Nigeria international Victor Ikpeba says coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr should stop playing Alex Iwobi as the number ten in the Super Eagles set up.

Iwobi has for a while played the role for Nigeria and even when he is drafted to the wings he is under specific instruction to drift into the playmaker role when the team is in possession.

With the Super Eagles suffering from a lack of creativity in the middle, Ikpeba says the coach should intensify his search for a midfielder who can’t create chances instead of relying on Alex Iwobi.

He says the idea of playing the Everton man in that role could work on the African scene but not on the global scene due to his lack of creativity.

“We lack that creativity in the midfield. We don’t have that players such as Austin Okocha and Wilson Oruma in the midfield that cancreate chances for our strikers.

“In Africa, its fine but playing at the world stages, we need someone that is creative. Alex Iwobi can’t do the job for us at the moment.” he said on Monday night football on Super Sports.

Former Nigeria junior international Emma Sarki who now plays for the senior national team of Haiti has lifted the lid on the role he played in making his close friend John Obi Mikel join Chelsea instead of Manchester United.

Sarki made this known in an interview with The Athletic, where he claimed ex Chelsea Chief Executive Peter Kenyon told him to get in contact with Mikel who had trials at Manchester United when Kenyon was CEO at the Old Trafford side.

Peter Kenyon wanted to talk to me at his office in Chelsea. I had not realised Kenyon had joined from Manchester United (as chief executive) — Mikel always spoke about him wanting to sign him at United — but Kenyon said, ‘Manu, I hear you and John Mikel are best friends. Can you find out what is happening with him and if he would be interested in coming to Chelsea?’.

Mikel had trails at Manchester United where he impressed to the extent that the club legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson nicknamed him Obi Wan while then captain Roy Keane stood by him all through.

The former captain of the Super Eagles has since spoken publicly of the two month-long trials he undertook between those finals alongside his compatriot, the late Isaac Promise, at Manchester United. He trained with Sir Alex Ferguson’s first team, claimed Roy Keane acted as his “bodyguard” when the tackles were flying, and grew used to the manager addressing him as “Obi Wan”.

According to Sarki, Mikel felt unhappy after the trials with the club proposing to loan him to Belgium side Antwerp to further his development. It was at that stage that he got in touch with Mikel on the orders of Kenyon.

Sarki said Mikel jumped at the idea as at that time he was at Chelsea alongside the duo of Ezekiel Bala and Chinedu Obasi. Alongside Mikel they were all part of the Nigerian U17 team back then. That was the start of Mikel’s relationship with Chelsea which led to his famous decision to ditch a move to Man Utd despite signing a pre contract.

“Mikel and I were always very close. We knew each other’s families really well and were room-mates in the national team, so I rang him up back home in Nigeria and asked, ‘Bro, what’s going on? Why did you leave your trial at United?’.

“He told me about Antwerp in Belgium and how he didn’t want to go there, so I had to explain to him that he would not be able to sign a deal in England because we were all under 18. And, anyway, we would not qualify (for a work permit). ‘Without this, you cannot play here’. He had not understood that but I told him I was there in London with Bala and Edu, and that, if he wanted, he could come and do a trial here too. ‘Are you sure? Stop pulling my leg’. I said I wasn’t!

“They bought him a ticket and he came to us. We were like a happy family together, the four of us… so happy to see him. We started training all together then, soon after, we went to South Africa for a while to play for Ajax Cape Town. We destroyed the league. Absolutely destroyed it.”

Samuel Chukwueze will be named in the Super Eagles squad for the World Cup qualifiers games in November unless he suffers another set back in training, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr spoke with the Villarreal wing forward who confirmed to him that he is back to full fitness and will be available for selection in November.

Rohr is keen on having him back for the crucial games against Liberia and also the game against Cape Verde in Lagos. Two games which will go a long way in helping them cement their spot in next hear Africa Cup of Nations.

We gathered the coach will likely drop Bordeaux winger Samuel Kalu who hasn’t been in the best of form and has lost his national team spot to Chidera Ejuke. With Chukwueze returning he could be the odd man out.

Meanwhile the coach is already planning for the games in November without Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi who isn’t expected to be fit for the games as latest report suggest he could be out for three more weeks.

Genk of Belgium have entered into transfer talks with Atletico Madrid over their Nigerian striker Paul Onuachu according to Spanish outlet Marca.

Both clubs are close to agreeing a fee of around €20 million, five less than what Genk demanded in the summer for the 27 year old but it is believed that the difference will be made up with several simple add ons.

Coach of Atletico Madrid, Diego Simeone sees Onuachu as one who will give his team a different dimension in attack as his style of play is different from that of the current strikers at the club, which is the duo of Luiz Suarez and Antoine Griezmann.

The 27-year-old attacker has so far scored 56 goals and 7 assists in 83 games for Genk making him one of the most prolific striker in Belgium in the last two seasons.