The talisman of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Victor Moses would have been playing for the senior national team of England and not Nigeria according to his former coach at Wigan Athletic Roberto Martinez.
Moses played over 30 times for England at various youth levels but switched allegiance to Nigeria in 2012, a move Martinez believed could have been avoided if England had called him up to their senior squad before Nigeria did.
Martinez made this known in an interview in 2012 during the reign of Fabio Capello as coach of the Three Lions of England shortly after Moses moved to Wigan from Crystal Palace for a fee in the region of £9m.
” The calls stopped coming after he represented England at U19 level, I think that made it easy for him to opt for Nigeria, the country of his birth.
“Even if you look at the great footballing cultures like Spain and Holland you see players of his (Moses) type are very rare. Victor could have been a real weapon for any team in the world. Victor is a quite unique player. When you work with him you realise he is not a normal footballer, not a typical modern winger.
“He is an old-fashioned type of winger with incredible raw talent which allows him to go past people. He brings real penetration to the wide positions.
“Teams are so well set up tactically these days that you need players who can bring something different and they don’t appear that often.” Martinez was quoted as saying in the Sunnewspaper of 2012.
Michael James
