FOLLOWING the invitation of Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori by the Three Lions, Super Eagles former assistant coach, Fatai Amao believes Nigeria should not lose sleep over their invitation as the likes of Victor Osimhen and Dennis Bonaventure can do the job for the national team.
Amao blamed the reliance on Nigerians born abroad on the lack of organisation of the league, while urging those in charge of football to look inward rather than looking outside.
“I think we have turned normal situation to emergency. We are now putting the horse before the cart and that is why we are always looking for players born abroad with Nigeria root. We put ourselves into this situation because I believe we have qualities that are better than Abraham and Fikayo in the country,” he said.
The former 3SC handler added: “Seeing how Osimhen and Dennis are playing in the UEFA Champions League has shown that Nigeria is blessed with talents and they have not seen anything yet from Osimhen and Dennis.
“So we should not lose sleep over the decision of Abraham and Fikayo to play for England. We all know those that made this kind of decisions in the past and they were latter dump by England. So, Nigeria should forget about them and focus on the players we have. No need forcing anyone to play for Nigeria,” Amao stated.
Former Eagles midfielder, Waidi Akanni, who spoke in the same vein, said there was no need losing sleep over the decision of Abraham and Tomori to play for England
Akanni stated that the local league should be developed to a level that it can produce stars for the national team instead of chasing foreign-born players.
“Nigeria should not lay too much emphasis on Abraham and Tomori’s decision to play for England,” Akanni told NationSport.
“Instead we should focus on our local players and developing our football. We should not be inviting players just because they play for the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United. These players should want to play for Nigeria and their call up should be voluntary,” Akanni added.
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