The Executive director of the Ondo State Football Agency has heaped praises on the Super Eagles chief coach for giving domestic league players a sense of belonging
Coach Stephen Keshi has been commended for giving players
in the Nigeria Premier League opportunity to fight for a place in the senior
national team.
Since Keshi's ascent to the managerial position of the
national team, players like Godfrey Oboabona of Sunshine Stars and Enugu
Rangers' Sunday Mba, who was recently named into the prestigious Goal 50, have
become a key part of the Super Eagles.
Speaking with Goal, Ondo State Football Agency executive
director, Mike Idoko believes Keshi’s success story with the Super Eagles can
be hinged on the fact he never overlooked the local-based stars stating that it
takes a lot of confidence for a national team handler to take such a risk.
“I must commend Stephen Keshi for being fearless. He took
a risk former managers, even the foreign ones, couldn’t take. I think he must
have borrowed a leaf from [Clemens] Westerhof because he took time before
building the USA '94 team which we have not been able to assemble up till now.
The NFF also must be commended too because if they had not given him the
chance, Keshi wouldn’t have been successful,” said Idoko.
“All our boys now go to the Super Eagles to fight for a
place because it is glaring that they are no longer training materials like
they were in the past where the foreign-based were picked ahead of them. At the
Africa Cup of Nations, he took along six players which has not happened
before,” he added.
The football administrator, however, warned him not to be
carried away by the home-based performances stating he must select players that
will stand the test of time.
“If this trend continues, the league will experience
rapid growth but the coach should be careful on his choice of local based
talents. He must look at their age and ask himself if those players can play
for a long period of time,” concluded Idoko.
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