Stand-in coach of Nigeria, Daniel Amokachi, has insisted that he is committed to discovering more home-based players, that can compete with those based in the foreign leagues.
Amokachi, who invited 11 Nigeria Premier League players for the two friendly matches against Uganda and South Africa, explained that this new direction will return the country to her glory days.
“If you remember when we qualified for the last Afcon in 2013 which we eventually won, the home-based contributed about 80 percent to the team that qualified and when we eventually played in the competition we still had sizeable number of the domestic league players that made the squad. One of them also got us crucial goals that won us the cup. It is a step that we have to revisit,” Amokachi told Goal.
“You can see from the call up it is not just about the home-based players but young players who are not that exposed to the international scene and some others who are playing in Europe.
“We also have our eyes on Nigerians in Europe who are not yet capped but are making waves overseas. We want to woo them so that they can come and play for their fatherland. All that immerse into one, I think we should be able to have a formidable team.”
Amokachi also called on Nigerians, to come out and cheer on the Super Eagles when they face The Cranes on Wednesday evening.
He continued: “We all know that our football has been going down over the years but Nigerians have always been behind us. Some have lost faith but then they came back and started supporting us when we won the 2013 AFCON and some have left Nigeria’s Eagles after not qualifying for the 2015 AFCON again.
“It is football but Nigeria is our country and our blood is green and white. We should come out and keep supporting the team because there is a bright future ahead of the team.”
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