(OPINION) ‘Of Homegrown and foreign born players’ by Ernest Osogbue

June 23 17:04 2021 by The Ajasa News Print This Article

The romantic notion of having local players in the national team is desirable; however, we must make up our minds whether the national team is a Training Ground or the Melting Pot of the best football legs Nigeria has to offer. This has become necessary following the vociferous clamor for local players in the Super Eagles, without first putting their level of skill into perspective.

While I understand the sentiments of most Nigerians in kicking against the influx of foreign players, especially those whose claim to being Nigerian is through their parentage, I equally do not see any reason to deny anyone who genuinely wants to represent Nigeria that singular honor. If we agree that all Nigerians are equal, then there should be no discrimination as to whether one is homegrown or foreign born. In this wise, only the best should be assembled when it comes to representing Nigeria.

Many countries have come to understand that discrimination only hurts the national interest, which is why countries like Switzerland, England, Austria and many others have embraced their Black communities in selecting their national football teams. Already countries like Germany, France and Portugal have seen an exponential improvement in their football fortunes as the records show, by incorporating Black communities in their selections.

It is therefore a surprise that a section of the Nigerian football fraternity see the influx of foreign born Nigerians as a desecration of the national team. To these people, these players lack the necessary ingredients of brawn and grit which characterize the roughhewn Nigerian footballer, who honed his skills playing street football, as opposed to one groomed in the cozy confines of a football academy. While this may be so, there is no gainsaying the importance of the technical and organizational skills, as well as the tactical understanding and discipline of the foreign born players, which is superior to that of their homegrown counterparts.

To me therefore, it is only on the basis of the accident of being born abroad that most people discriminate against these players, and it is on this ground that they continue to romanticize a national team strictly made up of homegrown players, at the expense of our national ambition, which is to win all international competitions we enter for, including the AFCON and the FIFA World Cup. Consistently going out of the FIFA World Cup at the first or the second round has become a national embarrassment.

In the last few years, no Nigerian team has made it to the quarter finals of either the CAF Champions League, or the CAF Confederations cup. It is generally believed in football circles, that campaigning for the biggest trophies not only improves a player’s confidence, but equally improves their skills. This is the reason why the USA in the quest to host, and possibly do well at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, has tacitly supported American footballers to play for some of the best clubs in Europe, and garner UEFA Champions League experience. Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Sergino Dest (Barcelona), Zack Steffen (Man City) are a few names that readily come to mind.

The Americans believe that consistently performing at the highest levels in Europe, would not only improve their skills, but would equally impact positively on the US national team. According to them, no country can hope to win or do well at the FIFA World Cup, without first being prepared to handle top European countries, as Europe usually has the largest contingent at the FIFA World Cup. The experiences of these players performing at the highest level with their European teammates would therefore come in handy when required.

If this is so, why are we engaging in reverse thinking, when the Americans are looking ahead?
In recent seasons, Nigerian players have struggled for minutes in Europe, and their poor form has impacted the fortunes of the national team. In fact, the 2020/21 season, has been one of the best for Nigerian players in recent years. Leon Balogun and Joe Aribo won the Scottish Premier League with Glasgow Rangers, Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi helped Leicester City win their first English FA Cup, in the club’s 139 year history. Samuel Chukwueze won the UEFA Europa League with Villareal, William Troost-Ekong won promotion to the EPL with Watford, while Paul Onuachu was setting the Belgian Jupiler League ablaze with his goals for Genk, to emerge as its top scorer.

Nigerian football has not had it so good in recent seasons in Europe; it was refreshing to see a number of Super Eagles players doing well after so many seasons of barrenness. One was therefore expecting the handlers of the national team to grab this opportunity and harness the confidence these achievements would have on the players in readiness for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, only for the age old clamor for local players to rear its ugly head.

For the avoidance of doubt, this writer has nothing against the local league, or local players. The point is that local players must earn their place in the national team, rather than it’s being handed to them on a platter. For now, no Nigerian club has shown the desire to have its players don the national colors. Our league champions have been kicked out of the preliminary stages of the CAF Champions League in as many seasons as I can remember. The same scenario has been witnessed in the CAF Confederations Cup. As far as the African continent is concerned, these two championships are the measuring stick for the performance of clubs and their players. On what grounds are these romantics clamoring for the inclusion of local players in the Super Eagles, when their teams are doing so poorly on the continent?

All over the world the national team is a place for already made players, it is not a place for sentiments. It is the assemblage of the best football legs a country can muster. It is only in Nigeria that standards are lowered giving room to all forms of unbaked and half-baked players to don the national colors.

If there is a desire to see local players in the Super Eagles, then they must get there by merit, pressure must be brought to bear on the LMC, the NPFL management and the NFF, to do more to improve the league. There must be concerted efforts to ensure that Nigerian teams play deep into the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup. It is only when this happens on a consistent basis, that the desire to see local players don the national colors would have meaning.

For now, that clamor is only to satisfy the romantic sentiments of its proponents, but would never help the national team to win laurels. With the foreign based talents available to the Super Eagles handlers currently, it would amount to shooting ourselves in the foot to bring local untested players into the mix, unless we have accepted that the national team is a training ground and that winning laurels is no longer the target.