Izuchukwu OkosiSuper Eagles head coach Jose Peseiro has revealed why the trio of in-form Gift Orban, Victor Boniface and Chuba Akpom were not named in his squad for Sunday’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sierra Leone.
The strikers scored crucial goals for their clubs in the Belgian, Turkish and English Championship with Boniface in particular being named in the UEFA Europa League Team of the 2022/2023 season.
Peseiro revealed to the sporting media in Lagos that due to the rising cost of air fares, the Nigeria Football Federation forced him to limit the number of players based abroad that would be invited for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Monrovia.
This specifically applied to the duo of Orban and Boniface while Akpom’s Nigerian passport had expired.
“I visit them. I was in England, I was in Spain, I was in Italy. I visited them from my pocket.
“For that I will like to call them but if I call them, I will have to drop some of these players like you know I can only call 19 foreign based players,” Peseiro stated at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan, Lagos.
“I believe in the local players but our federation (NFF) is not in a good financial situation for that, so because of that I can only call 19 players from outside Nigeria”, he explained after the team’s first training session.
Peseiro went on: “If I have the space to call more players, Orban, Boniface or more players I can call but I understand the situation and our NFF say I can only call 19 players.”
Speaking further, he assured them that they will be part of his subsequent squads especially if they maintain their current club form before the next round of games.
The Portuguese also took out time to explain the invitation of captain of the team Ahmed Musa who has not played an awful lot of games for Turkish side Sivasspor.
Peseiro explained that Musa is a winger while the aforementioned duo are strikers.
The Portuguese noted that including them ahead of Musa will mean taking five strikers to Monrovia for the game against Sierra Leone, a game which he said he stuck with the 19 players who have been in his team since he took over a year ago.
Nigeria will qualify for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivorie with a win against Sierra Leone whose home games are currently played away from their home grounds as their stadiums failed to meet up to the standards of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after recent inspections.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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