Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has been forced into altering his squad for the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers game against Central Africa Republic (CAR).

Everton midfielder Alex Iwobi won’t be available for the game after picking up an injury and in his place , the coach has called up Lorient striker Terem Moffi further swelling the options in attack.

Iwobi’s absence means the team will be without three of their regular midfielders as the duo of Oghenekaro Etebo and Wilfred Ndidi were not included in the list due to injury.

Nonetheless Nigeria will approach both games against CAR hoping to pick up two wins that will likely see them book a spot in the final qualifying round for the World Cup in Qatar next year.

Reports from several sources in the Dutch media say Arnold Groeneveld Danjuma isn’t taking lightly talks of a potential switch of nationality to Nigeria after failing to get into the squad of the Netherlands.

Since his debut three years ago, the 24 year old hasn’t gotten in look in and when he moved to Villarreal he openly spoke about switching nationality if he fails to get an invitation to play for the Netherlands.

Born to parents of Nigerian descent, the main stumbling block is that he played in the UEFA Nations League at the age of 21 which per the rules makes it impossible for him to switch to another nation.

However his representatives are of the opinion that the Nations League is a friendly tournament hence shouldn’t be counted as a competitive game meaning he can still switch to Nigeria as he is keen to play in next year world cup.

The report says talks will be planned with coach Gernot Rohr of the Nigerian team who tried to get the winger before he was capped by the Netherlands three years ago.

Rangers of Scotland left full back Calvin Ughelumba Bassey has been handed a first time call up to the senior national team of Nigeria for their back to back World Cup qualifiers game against Central Africa Republic (CAR).

He was the only new player in the list of players submitted by coach of the team Gernot Rohr and released by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) yesterday for the games which will be played on the 7th and 10th of October respectively.

Bassey was born in Italy to Nigerian parents but moved to England at a very young age and it was there that he started his football career before progressing to Rangers of Scotland. He was signed for free from the U23s of Leicester City two summers ago.

Eligible to play for Italy, England and Nigeria, the player’s choice of Nigeria was inspired by his mother who raised him alongside three of his brothers after separating with their father.

“My mother played a huge role in making me decide on playing for Nigeria. It has been her dream and I am glad she is alive to see it come to pass. If all goes well she will likely follow me to Nigeria to see me in the colours of the team she loves for the first time”, an excited Bassey told Owngoalnigeria.com in a chat.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has triggered another row over bonuses with the way they paid bonuses of the senior national team of Nigeria after the wins in the World Cup qualifiers games against Liberia and Cape Verde respectively.

We gathered the team were paid their bonus for both games but some backroom staff were not captured in the payments and it includes all but two of the assistants of coach of the team Gernot Rohr.

Only the duo of Alloy Agu and Joseph Yobo got their bonus from the games as other assistants of the German coach were told the NFF don’t have funds. Infact they were in the dark about the payment until they were told by one of the players and upon asking Rohr he confirmed it .

The situation has left Rohr angry and he is helpless owing to the fact that he also has an axe to grind with the NFF with his salary in Naira amounting to almost nothing when converted into dollars due to the fall in Nigeria’s exchange rates.

Rohr’s assistant could boycott the upcoming back to back games against Central Africa Republic as they feel they weren’t properly treated by the football house after the last round of games.

Victor Osimhen was on target for the fifth consecutive game as his side slump to a 2-3 loss away to Spartak Moscow in the Europa League.

The Nigerian who scored twice to help them draw 2-2 against Leicester City scored his third goal of the tournament in the 90th minute after coming of the bench with his team trailing the host 1-3.

His goal ended up as a mere consolation as the Russian side hanged on to claim all three points in what was a bad tempered match with both team ending the game with ten men following red cards.

For Osimhen he hasn’t stopped scoring since the brace against Leicester City with further goal against Udinese, a brace against Sampdoria, one against Cagliari before today’s game. He now has seven goals from seven games in all competitions.

Wilfred Ndidi was the big name missing from the squad of the Super Eagles of Nigeria for their upcoming back to back World Cup qualifiers game against Central Africa Republic (CAR).

In the list of players released by the NFF officially today as submitted by coach of the team Gernot Rohr, the Leicester City midfielder was conspicuously missing among the midfielders called up for the games.

He was omitted alongside Oghenekaro Etebo who is out injured for five months but Ndidi was in action for Leicester City last weekend and even on their official site of his club there is no mention of him getting injured.

Our editorial team sort to exclusively hear from the coach why the 24 year old wasn’t listed and we discovered it’s in relation to an injury he picked up in training few days ago which will keep him out for two weeks.

Rohr was asked “Good morning coach, seen the list. Is Ndid injured? he played last weekend for Leicester City”, he replied “Yes injured in Training”.

English Premier League side Watford has announced that Nigeria international Oghenekaro Etebo won’t be available for the next five months after picking up an injury.

The club made the announcement on their official website revealing that he picked up a muscle injury during the game againt Newcastle United as part of their update ahead of this weekend game against Leeds United.

He will require a period of four to five months to heal effectively ruling him out of Nigeria’s campaign at next month Africa Cup of Nations. “Midfielder Peter Etebo tore a quad muscle towards the end of the Newcastle United game last weekend and is expected to be out for between four to five months”, reads an announcement on their website.

It will also dampen his chances of earning a permanent deal at the club where he is on loan from Stoke City with the option of signing permanently at the end of the season, which will be a blow to his dream of staying at the club.

Coach of Roma Jose Mourinho was in the news few days ago for suggesting that Tammy Abraham should consider a switch to Nigeria if he fails to get an invitation from England.

Mourinho was speaking on the back of the fine form of the striker who has not been a part of Southgate squad for two years and with the World Cup approaching, he felt he should consider Nigeria.

However, the forward can’t switch allegiance to Nigeria as the rule for players willing to switch nationality states that, players are free to change nationality as long as they have only featured in three international fixtures, including qualifiers – but not tournaments like the World Cup, must have been less than 21 years of age at the time of playing and can only switch after three years of no international activity.

Abraham was above 21 when he played for England and he has also played six games for the three lions at senior level meaning sticking with England is his only chance of glory at international football.

Reacting to Mourinho’s comment, a backroom staff of the Super Eagles said it’s not an option even if he was eligible to switch to Nigeria because they now have Victor Osimhen in his role.

” It’s not even possible for him to play for us even if he can still switch nationality. First of all we have Osimhen who fits the way the team plays and he is even doing better than Abraham in same league. Then we have the issue of the way he handled his decision to play for England. Back then we didn’t have Osimhen and others. Now we do, so he is not needed”.

Calvin Bassey Ughelumba has been handed a maiden call up to the senior national team of Nigeria by coach Gernot Rohr ahead of their upcoming back to back 2022 World Cup qualifiers game against Central Africa Republic.

The 21 year old left back who plays for Scottish side Rangers has been on the radar of the Super Eagles since last year when he broke into the first team of Rangers as they romp to the SPL title without losing a game.

Bassey while he was with the U23 team of Leicester City approached the then coach of the Nigerian team Paul Aigbogun before the 2019 Under-20 World Cup but wasn’t considered due to the presence of Ikouwem Utin.

” In 2019 he contacted me, then he was with Leicester City U23 and I watched him in some games but decided against calling him up because he plays same role as my captain Ikouwem Utin”, Aigbogun told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

” We kept on talking and when he made the move to Rangers and broke into their first team I contacted Rohr to keep an eye on him. Early this season he got a call up to represent England U21 but at that time he has already committed to us so he turned it down. I’m happy he has been given a chance”, the NFF technical director concluded.