Soccertalk by Mumini Alao
THE Super Eagles have landed in Egypt for the 2019 AFCON, but the talk still reverberating back home in Nigeria is about the dropping of Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho from the final squad.
Opinions are divided. The player’s critics say it served him right because he’s had a poor season at his club. But his sympathizers wonder why Coach Gernot Rohr invited him to camp in the first place. They wonder why Rohr didn’t even size him up in the friendly against Zimbabwe in Asaba before dropping him from the squad.
Well, the inside gist to those posers is that Rohr’s hands were forced by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) top brass to call up the former Manchester City boy.
The NFF felt not inviting Iheanacho at all would demoralize him and affect his career negatively. Rohr succumbed to the sentiment on condition he would have the final say on whether the player would make it to Egypt, and a deal was struck. So, from the very start, the odds were stacked up against the player convincing the coach.
My view is that Iheanacho should not have been called up at all if the coach was not going to give him a chance to be selected. What do you think? Join the conversation at our forum, naijasuperfans.com
