By George Aluo
Super Eagles technical adviser, Gernot Rohr has declared that it would be difficult for any of the home based players featuring in the NPFL to make his AFCON 2019 squad.
Rohr who spoke before the Eagles, Seychelles clash last week in Asaba hinged his position on the very difficult condition under which the home lads ply their trade.
In Rohr’s words: “It is not easy for the local players. I sympathize with them because they play under very difficult condition. You can see they play in old Astro turf which is not good for them. They didn’t play for six, seven months when the league was suspended. The league is not well organized and they travel under very difficult condition to matches. So, how do you expect them to match the players from Europe who have everything going for them in their clubs? The players in Europe play in good pitches, train in the best of training turfs, eat good food and organization perfect. Their level of fitness cannot be the same and we must go to the Nations Cup with the best.”
Rohr was quick to point out that he has all the same done his best to encourage the home lads. He stressed that another reason why nobody should be talking about home boys is that each time he invites an NPFL player before you say Jack Robinson; he is in Europe looking for greener pasture.
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“In the last two and half years that I’m here, I have invited about 22 home based players but as we speak none of them is here in Nigeria. Each time you invite a local player, in another one or two weeks he is out. Every time you start again to invite. But they all want to leave for Europe to make money which is normal. The truth is that we need better infrastructure in Nigeria, better training conditions, better organization, better transportation, for now it is very difficult for the local players”, Rohr said.
The Eagles manager stressed that he had to call up all his best legs for the game against Seychelles because for him, the encounter was one he was using to kick start his AFCON 2019 build up.
“We have just three more months to the Nations Cup in Egypt. So, we have to use Seychelles to start our preparations. Yes, we have qualified, but we have to start preparations and concentrate. We have to see if a player like Paul Onachu can add value to the team. The competition for a place in the team has started,” Rohr said.
Eagles managed a 3-1 victory over Seychelles at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in a game they failed to shine.
Rohr however blamed the team’s poor showing on the Asaba Stadium turf which he noted is not lush green and smooth.
