Former Hapoel Be’er Sheva forward Anthony Nwakaeme says he wasn’t given the chance to make his mark in the Super Eagles after failing to impress in his debut for the team.
31 year old Nwakaeme who now plays in Turkey for Trabzonspor make this known in an interview with Kwese TV while speaking on his time with the senior national team of Nigeria.
As at when he made his debut for Nigeria he was coming from the Israeli top division league where he led his team Hapoel Be’er Sheva to back to back league titles and also finished as top scorer and best player in the league.
He was handed his debut in the dead rubber World Cup qualifiers game against Algeria which ended in a 1-1 draw but was later awarded as a 3-0 win to Algeria after it was discovered that Nigeria fielded an ineligible player in Shehu Abdullahi.
Nwakaeme started in attack for Nigeria alongside the duo of Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi but he only lasted 71 minutes with Henry Onyekuru replacing him as he struggled to make his mark.
Explaining his struggle in the game, he admitted that he didn’t perform as expected but still believe he would have been given another chance with the team if he was playing in Spain or England.
He said the fact that he was playing in Isreal around that time made the coach to snub him for future games after his not too good performance in his debut game . He also said he didn’t have anybody to push his case for him to be given another chance.
“Because maybe they fell like he is in Israel. Okay when he come to the National team he play one game he didn’t do too well. Nobody want to invite you again. But imagine if I play in England or in Spain. Even after that game they will want to see me again. They want to play me again, but because I play in Israel and I have nobody to push me in the national team to explain to the people you need to give this guy a chance, you need to let him show himself because there are lot of players in the national team”, he told Kwese TV.
“They are lot of players in the national team they call them more than one time is not like all the time they call them they play well but the still give them chance. Football is all about chance to me. Like the first time I came to Be’er Sheva they wanted to take me back they said that this is a waste of money to them is not what they saw before.
“Football is also time you know. Some people they just want you to come and start the magic. The magic does not work like that you need to let the player know that he belong because me I am the type of player who want to know that he belong in this place. I don’t want to have the fear of today try will put me out or they will put me in and that was what happened with the Super Eagles but all the same who can I blame.
“At the end of the game it was they put in the game. I was the one that played, I was the one that didn’t get it right the way they want it but I think they didn’t call me again because I was playing in Isreal. If I was playing in Spain or England they would have called me again.
