Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has a dilemma on his hand when it comes to picking players who will represent Nigeria in the upcoming friendly tournament in England, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
The tournament will be followed by another friendly game against Russia on the 6th of June. While the timing of the game in Russia suits the availability of top players of the team, it isn’t the same with the tournament in England, where they will be up against Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana and Jamaica.
Chelle per what we exclusively gathered want to go with the total compliment of his first team squad for both engagements, but the timing of the tournament in England means players playing in Spain, Italy and England won’t be readily available.
Their various leagues will be ending around the same weekend for the tournament, which could force the coach into calling up other players also based in Europe, as opposed to the idea of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) who want the team to be largely made up of players from the Nigeria Premier Football League ( NPFL).
NFF feels the game will be the best avenue to prepare and expose some of the players in the CHAN team that is preparing for the Africa Nations Championship, while Chelle want to pick players from his bogus list of Nigerian players plying their trade in Europe.
A compromise is expected to be reached in the coming days, which could see a couple of players from the CHAN team probably five picked alongside players playing in Europe in lesser rated leagues.
Ade Emmanuel
