The clamour for coach Gernot Rohr to include home based players in the squad of the senior national team of Nigeria went down a bit following the decision of the coach to hand a call up to FC Ifeanyi Ubah defender Olamilekan Adeleye.
Adeleye was selected as one of the central defenders of the team, a decision which relegated Chidozie Awaziem to the standby list despite his status as one of the untouchables under Rohr.
Awaziem’s lack of game time at FC Porto played a role in the decision to drop him from the squad but he was omitted in favour of a player who has been on holiday for four months since the end of the Nigeria Profesional Football League.
Owngoalnigeria.com gathered from sources close to the coach that the Franco-German coach is a big fan of the hard tackling, pacy and uncompromising central defender since his exploits for the Super Eagles B team at the WAFU Championship in Ghana.
An invitation to the Super Eagles was on the cards for the defender but the injury which kept him out of the final match of the WAFU Cup and subsequently ruled him out of the CHAN Championship in Morocco cost him the chance to push for a spot in Nigeria’s World Cup squad.
Following renewed calls for home based players to be part of the squad, the coach was left with no choice but to call Adeleye, someone he has faith in despite his only action in four months coming in the Super Eagles friendly game against Liberia two months ago.
He snubbed defenders from Enyimba, Enugu Rangers and Kano Pillars as he believe they don’t have the required standard to play for the Eagles yet despite their involvement in games the past few months as against Adeleye who has been on holiday for four months.
Osas Mahawi
