Calabar Rovers FC coach, Bob Osim has sent out a strong piece of advice to Super Eagles’ technical adviser, Eric Sekou Chelle to start some home-based players in the upcoming friendly match against Ghana.
Sports247 reports that Chelle has already included 10 players from clubs in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) for this Wednesday’s clash with Ghana’s Black Stars in the second semi-final of the 2025 Unity Cup in London, England.
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However, while many observers are already showering praises on Chelle for taking such a bold step, which several Eagles’ handlers before him never did, Osim suggested that the Franco-Malian tactician should also go agead and give starting opportunities to some of the home-based lads.
The 44-year-old Osim, a former defender, who played nine matches for Nigeris in his heyday, reasoned: “It’s also an opportunity for the home-based, because they have not been having this kind of chance. (For the starting line-up on Wednesday), it must not only be from the foreign-based side. The home-based too should get their chances.
“If a home-based player is good, though he plays in the local league, he should also be respected. It should not only be for those who play outside the country, especially in Europe.”
The defender-turned-gaffer, who also lined out as a holding midfielder during his playing days with a number of Nigerian league clubs, before retiring at UNICEM Rovers of Calabar in 2009, added that the Unity Cup could be an opportunity to repeat the historic process that shot ex-international winger, Finidi George to global limelight while he was still at Sharks of Port Harcourt.
Osim added, “If you see a good player in Kwara (United) and he’s excellent, he should be encouraged. This is another avenue to expose him.
“We can remember some years back when Finidi George and others started playing for the national team … it was from the local league. How did they get there? When they were allowed to play in competitions for the national team, clubs from Europe bought them.”
Bob Osim submitted by reiterating how the 2025 Unity Cup can be used to launch a new set of talents for the Super Eagles’ future from among the ten home-based lads that Chelle has already called up for the four-nation competition, in which Nigeria will battle Ghana a day after Jamaica lock horns with Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday.
“If a player is good in the local league, he should also get the opportunity of representing the country. It mustn’t be only for those who are based outside the country,” Osim posited.
Sports247 recalls that Osim, whose name is sometimes spelt as Usim, starred in the domestic league for Calabar Rovers, Iwuanyanwu National of Owerri, Enugu Rangers, Sunshine Stars of Akure, Enyimba of Aba and Heartland of Owerri but he never played for any foreign club
