Super Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr has taken a swipe at instances in which his selection of players to the Nigerian national team has been based on newspaper reports, which he insists are often erroneous and misleading, megasportsarena.com reports.
While affirming that he will not invite any new player for next month’s 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Rohr said he was alarmed to see various list of players that the three-time African champions would rely on for the matches against Republic of Benin and Lesotho.
The Eagles are leading Group L with eight points and a win in either of the next couple of games will seal their place in the continental showpiece billed to hold next year summer in Cameroon, but Rohr stressed that he will not be experimenting with new payers for the crucial matches.
The Franco-German tactician also denied a recent reports in the local media that a large array of Nigerian-born players, led by Ademola Lookman, Tosin Adarabioyo, Sheyi Ojo, Ike Ugbo, Nathan Tella, Nonso Madueke, Ovie Ejaria and Jordan Torunarigha have all been cleared to feature for the Eagles.
Although Rohr admitted he would readily pick any of the lads were they to be made eligible for selection, but the former Girondins-Bordeaux of France, Gabon, Niger Republic and Burkina Faso gaffer stressed seeing names bandied around in the press does not mean it is a reality.
Rohr, who tagged such reports as ‘fake news,’ blasted: “You can read so many names in the newspaper, but that’s not the best way to select the players. The best way to select the players is to scout them very well, and also to speak to them if there is motivation to come.
“If they want to come, they have to write a letter to FIFA that they want to switch from England or Germany or Austria to Nigeria and it’s not easy for them to make that choice.
“But we have some players in view, one of them wrote a letter already. I saw a list the other day in the media which was fake news.
“So, for the moment, we have our players, and it is not the best moment to bring in new players when we only have one or two training sessions to prepare for a match.”
