A former veteran goalkeeper in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), Bassey Akpan, has come out with a heart-stirring prayer that recent poor results against the home-based national team do not affect players in the domestic scene.
Sports247 reports that the former versatile netminder, who is now the goalkeepers’ trainer at Akwa United of Uyo, admitted that the home-based Eagles’ results at the Championship of African Nations (CHAN 2024) were not good enough and could damage the potential of other NPFL players.
Akpan, who made waves with the Golden Eaglets at the 2001 African U-17 Cup of Nations, conceded: “The results and things we saw were not good for the home-based Eagles. It’s also not good for the domestic league’s players.
“Before now, there was a lot of clamour for Eagles’ coaches to feature home-based players in the main team. This opportunity has now been given, but they’ve thrown it away.”
As a new season of the NPFL started just 24 hours after the CHAN Eagles returned home from their dismal outing in Zanzibar, Akpan expressed concern over the future fate of home-based players in the Super Eagles’ main team.
He supplicated, “I just pray it does not affect good players in the domestic league. That is just the fact, because an opportunity like CHAN is for them to make sure they use it to announce themselves.”
He concluded by pointing out that doing well in the CHAN competition would have also been a way of boosting individual careers of NPFL players, especially in terms of getting clubs abroad.
“(It’s an opportunity for them) to get a club abroad and give a good picture of the league that they are playing in. So, this is not a good one for us.
“It was a poor outing. I just pray it will not affect the domestic league players’ chances in the Super Eagles’ A-team,” concluded Akpan, who also got a stint of action in Vietnam from 2012 to 2014.
Sports247 gathered further that the 41-year-old product of Bright Star Football Academy of Port Harcourt played for a total of seven NPFL clubs – Bayelsa United of Yenagoa, Sunshine Stars of Akure, Kwara United of Ilorin, Heartland of Owerri, Abia Warriors of Umuahia, Akwa United of Uyo and Rangers International of Enugu.
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