Nigeria Assistant Coach Yobo Hopes NPFL Players Will Stake Their Claim For Super Eagles Call-Ups

Published: June 06, 2020

Super Eagles assistant coach Joseph Yobo hopes that home based players will seize their opportunities and stake their claims in the national team despite the threats posed by their foreign based teammates.

Yobo was captain of the Nigerian national team in 2013 when they won the Africa Cup of Nations for the third time in South Africa with then Eagles head coach Stephen Keshi naming some home based players who played huge roles in the Nations Cup triumph.

Yobo who was recently appointed as assistant coach of the Nigerian national team has been mandated to recommend players from the NPFL for head coach Gernot Rohr.

"Each player that is good should come with a different mentality when invited to the national team, the Super Eagles because it is different," Yobo told Brila FM, Lagos.

"That thing that made them (coaches) invite you, don't be shy, don't come to the national team and be timid. On that field is where you show your quality and character. Football has no borders, just do your work that you merited.

"So I believe there are good players in the NPFL that deserve to be in the national team but there has to be an understanding between the coach and the (Nigeria Football) Federation on that."

The Eagles are atop their 2021 AFCON qualifying table with two wins out of two qualifying games but their matches against Sierra Leone in March this year were postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Izuchukwu Okosi