Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) legend, Victor Ezeji has spoken out against what he described as over reliance by the Super Eagles on players born abroad, Sports247 reports.
The Sharks FC of Port Harcourt icon noted that the penchant to keep hunting around for players of Nigerian descent starring for clubs in Europe has affected the growth of youngsters through the age-grade teams up to the Super Eagles.
While also noting that it has stopped Super Eagles’ coaches from looking towards the domestic league for talents, Ezeji called for a return to the old style of upgrading players through each grade cadres.
He argued further, “This problem began when we started relying on foreign-based players. Then, the day we moved from foreign-based to foreign-born, the anomalies got worse.
“That’s why we no longer look at players who went through the ranks of under-17 to under-23 playing for the Super Eagles. Now we are looking for foreign-born players everywhere.”
Victor, who also had a short stay with Enyimba of Aba in 2003 before returning to PH, then snubbed several offers to play abroad, continued by pointing out that youth development will remain a problem in Nigeria if the senior national team’s selectors keep on hunting around for players born abroad.
He added, “Once the country continues thinking like that, there’s no hope for the ones that are supposed to graduate gradually into the Super Eagles and make it there.
“Anyone we hear is doing well, and his mum is a Nigerian, or his dad is Nigerian, we care quickly on the plane to go and look for him to come play for the Super Eagles. That’s why there’s no progress from the youth teams.”
He concluded with a call for a return to days of yore, when young talents graduated from Golden Eaglets to Flying Eagles, then U23 Eagles and into the Super Eagles, so that the glorious days that Nigeria used to enjoy in international football can return.
“If we want to go back to that place of glory, we have to look for our foreign-based players, not foreign-born ones. We’ve been looking too much for foreign-born players in recent years. That’s why it has been the way it is for the Super Eagles,” Ezeji opined.
It would be recalled that Victor, who played for Club Africain of Tunisia from 2007 to 2008, also had stints with Eagle Cement and Dolphins of Port Harcourt in the Nigerian league, as well as Sunshine Stars of Akure and Heartland of Owerri, where he hung his boots in 2015.
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