The coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has explained why he called up 22 foreign based players for the dead rubber AFCON qualifiers game against Sao Tome and Principe in Uyo, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Nigeria has already booked a spot at next year Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire making the game against Sao Tome a formality, hence questions were asked when the Portuguese coach of the team called up all of his regulars for the game.
Reacting to questions during the pre match conference, the 63 year old defended his decision, explaining that he wants only the best players in the team at all time help forge a strong team, that will power them to the goal of winning the AFCON and also the first two games of the World Cup qualifiers which begins in November.
“Our goal since I signed the contract in my mind is to win the next AFCON. For us to win that AFCON we need to do our best everyday, every time. Everybody say you don’t need the win over São Tomé or with the local players you can beat São Tomé but you need to understand that to prepare the team to win the AFCON you need time to work, national team is not like club where you work everyday weeks and months to prepare the team”, he said.
“Super Eagles in my opinion although I respect other people opinion I must call the best players to prepare them, for training them, to spend more time to improve our organization, to improve our spirit and our team. If I go ahead and change many players, I will go now because the best players deserve to come but I lose training and the chance to use match to prepare our team. To prepare our team is not easy or is not only call the best player and they play but you need to build a team.
“This game we are using as preparation for the first two games of the world cup qualifiers that begin in November and also the AFCON. We must stick with some players and not call new players all the time”, he stated further.
He said he is however open to calling more new players in the team like he did with the opportunity given to the trio of Jordan Torunarigha, Gift Orban and Victor Boniface, who are line for their debut tomorrow.
“We have three new players here; Orban, Jordan and Victor Boniface. They are all good players and who done well for their clubs. We have a lot of good players that I and staff have follow all the time. Weekend at times, we monitored like 40 games.
“So, now we are thinking about building a more cohesive team. Of course, there is always a chance for new players to come in.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman