Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Austin Eguavon released the official 32-man squad list to persecute the FIFA World Cup final qualifiers game against Ghana later this month and big reactions have continued to trail the release from the NFF Communications department.
Eguavon who took over from Gernot Rohr, led the team to the AFCON 2021 in Cameroon with the team failing to get past the round of 16. However, the coach has been left to handle things in the main time with the mission being to qualify the Super Eagles for the World Cup in Qatar.
Samuel Chukwueze, who received a lot of backlash for his performance at the AFCON and since his return to his club has only managed one assist in four games in over 190 minutes of football made the list.
Emmanuel Dennis, who was in a form of his life but was unavailable to play at the AFCON due to club issues and people saying he wasn’t interested also made the squad despite the striker only netting once in the year 2022 in 8 matches, playing over 650 minutes of football for Watford FC.
Another Watford player, Oghekaro Etebo who has been injured and is just returning, hasn’t played a football match for the club for over 4 months, dating back to October 2021 found himself in the standby list as well as Ogenyi Onazi who was without a professional club for a good period up until December 2021 after leaving Denizlispor in Turkey, joined Arabian side Al-Adalah FC in late January 2022.
These calls make one question the integrity of the list if it’s baes on performance and form or something else.
FULL SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Francis Uzoho (AC Omonia, Cyprus); Daniel Akpeyi (Kaizer Chiefs, South Africa); Maduka Okoye (Sparta Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Defenders: Oluwasemilogo Ajayi (West Bromwich Albion, England); Kenneth Omeruo (CD Leganes, Spain); Leon Balogun (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland); William Ekong (Watford FC, England); Olaoluwa Aina (Torino FC, Italy); Calvin Bassey (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland); Abdullahi Shehu (AC Omonia, Cyprus); Zaidu Sanusi (FC Porto, Portugal)
Midfielders: Frank Onyeka (Brentford FC, England); Joseph Ayodele-Aribo (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland); Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City, England); Oghenekaro Etebo (Watford FC, England); Akinkunmi Amoo (FC Copenhagen, Denmark)
Forwards: Ahmed Musa (Fatih Karagumruk, Turkey); Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal FC, Spain); Victor Osimhen (Napoli FC, Italy); Moses Simon (FC Nantes, France); Sadiq Umar (UD Almeria, Spain); Odion Jude Ighalo (Al-Hilal FC, Saudi Arabia); Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City, England); Emmanuel Dennis (Watford FC, England); Ademola Lookman (Leicester City, England)
Standby: Chidozie Awaziem (Alanyaspor FC, Turkey); Jamilu Collins (SC Padeborn 07, Germany); Chidera Ejuke (CSKA Moscow, Russia); Taiwo Awoniyi (Union Berlin, Germany); Paul Onuachu (KRC Genk, Belgium); Peter Olayinka (SK Slavia Praha, Czech Republic); Ogenyi Onazi (Al-Adalah FC, Saudi Arabia)
