The recent move by president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has been termed as a way of forcing players on interim coach of the Super Eagles Austine Eguavoen.
Pinnick met with Al Ahli forward Odion Ighalo who wasn’t a part of the sqaud that crashed out of the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations during the club world cup.
He took to Twitter to announce that he has met with the forward who assured him that he is ready to play for Nigeria in the World Cup qualifiers playoff against Ghana in March. ” That’s not his job. It’s similar to putting the coach under pressure to call Ighalo. What if he is not in the plans of the coach”, Adebayo Akinwale, a football agent base in London told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
” Pinnick is forcing Ighalo on Eguavoen. He did same with Cyriel Dessers and to a large extent made ex coach Gernot Rohr to keep him out because he felt his authority is been undermined. It took a while before Rohr gave Dessers a look in”, he stated.
On the recent post where Pinnick met with Super Eagles players alongside the coaches of the national team in Austine Eguavoen and Emmanuel Amuneke. Akinwale insist that the presence of the duo of Emmanuel Dennis and Samuel Kalu is still a way of imposing them on the coach.
” Eguavoen don’t want Dennis. That is what I know for sure but Pinnick’s publicity stunt has placed him under huge pressure to call him up even Kalu. Such meetings if needed should be handled by the coach and not the NFF president. The coach knows players who are in his plans”, he concluded.