Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria has explained why he prefers playing players based abroad as opposed to players playing in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
Some section of the Nigerian media have criticize the coach severally for his preference for majorly players plying their trade in Europe as they believe the local lads should be given a chance to stake a claim in the team.
Rohr has called up lot of players based in the Nigerian local league but bar goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa and when captain Ahmed Musa was at Kano Pillars for a while, he is yet to play any other in a competitive game since he became coach in 2016.
While defending his decision, Rohr explained that players playing in the NPFL need to be better than those in their position before they can be given in a look in. He also explained he mainly call up young players to encourage them.
“Of course I will invite local players if they were better than their foreign-based counterparts. That’s why we invite younger players from the local league to encourage them and when we have friendlies, we test them.”
