When the continental championship begins next month, Ivory Coast will not have a single Nigerian outfield player in the NPFL
Abia Warriors defender Ifeanyi Anaemena has expressed disappointment that the Nigeria Professional League outfield player is not included in the Super Eagles squad for the 2023 African Cup of Nations, Soccernet.ng reported.
Head coach Jose Peceiro and the Nigeria Football Association submitted a preliminary 40-man list of players to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) a few days ago.
Interestingly, NPFL players Enyimba International’s goalkeeper Ojo Olorunleke, Bendel Insurance’s Amath Obasogie and Sporting Lagos’ Christian Nwoke were named in the shortlist.
However, complaints were voiced from various quarters over the fact that field players from the domestic league were not included in the AFCON team.
Anaemena, who was called up to the Super Eagles for the first time under former national team coach Gernot Rohr, believes it is disrespectful to the NPFL that Peseiro could not name any outfield players in the team.
“This is an insult and shows the world that the league has no value,” the former Enyimba star told Punch.
“This is one of the reasons why some players don’t want to play in the NPFL when they return from abroad.” They prefer to stay at home and wait for offers from other leagues.
“Most of the NPFL’s stars travel to Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to play soccer, as the league is becoming less valuable.”
He further added: “The NFF, the coaches and those given the national mandate have no respect for the league. For this reason, they have created a provisional list that disallows the inclusion of NPFL players (outfielders). We only considered goalkeepers because they have big challenges in that area.”
Nigeria won their third AFCON trophy in 2013, with then coach Stephen Keshi including six home players in his final 23-man squad.
One of the NPFL players, Sunday Mba, scored the winning goal in the final against Burkina Faso, making Nigeria African champions.
Anaemena believes that the NFF should have retained the successful template popularized by the late Keshi.
The former Saudi Arabian Al Nahda star continued: “I made a statement on my Facebook page about Stephen Keshi helping the NPFL players. He was the coach who proved to the world that NPFL players can perform well. In 2013, I participated in AFCON with 6 other NPFL players and won.”
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations will begin on January 13 and run until February 11, with Nigeria set to be the favorites to win.
