Afcon 2023: Omokaro lament the quality of Eagles players as Ideye not optimistic about our chances

Former dreaded Super Eagles defender Bright Omokaro has bemoaned the quality of players wearing the Super Eagles jersey today.

Omokaro says the shirt has now become an all-comers’ affair, where benched players in their foreign clubs are making the Super Eagles team.

He said this was unlike his playing days in the 1970s when it was tough to dorn the Nigerian jersey.

Omokaro told The Guardian when asked to assess the Super Eagles level of preparedness ahead of Saturday’s Côte D’Ivoire tournament.

 “Sadly, we have a handful of players who are not first-choice players in their respective teams, and they are representing Nigeria at the Nations Cup; this is very unfortunate.

” The easiest way to get into the Super Eagles these days is to just play for any foreign club, it could be a third-tier division, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re regarded as a foreign player.

“In my days the likes of John Fasanu know they have to go through the extra mile and work extra hard to get into the Super Eagles squad.

“If you dorn the Nigerian jersey, you have proven yourself to be worthy,” he said.

Omokaro, a dreadful defender in his playing days, said the exclusion of home-based players was disturbing.

” I thought we’ve gotten past this. I don’t know if it can be law in Nigeria that every team should have at least 40 percent of home-based players.

“By so doing, we’re consciously developing our football. I know times have changed but if it worked for our football then, we should consider it,” he said.

Super Eagles, three-time champions of the tournament: 1980, 1994, and 2013, hope to win the trophy for the fourth time when the tournament kicks off on Saturday.

Also, former Eagles striker, Brown Ideye, has played down the chances of the Super Eagles winning the Afcon.

Ideye, a member of the 2013 Afcon-winning team in South Africa, stated that the current squad lacked the hunger and discipline to win a fourth trophy in Ivory Coast.

The Eagles, who are drawn in Group A, will begin their campaign on Sunday against Equatorial Guinea.

They will also face hosts on January 22, before battling Guinea-Bissau four days later in their final group game.

 “I don’t see them winning the tournament. We don’t have disciplined players and this current set of players lack the hunger to win for Nigeria.

“We are not ready to win. They may go on to win it but my opinion is that I don’t think we can win it.”

The former West Bromwich Albion and Dynamo Kyiv striker claimed that players in the team, who were born and raised abroad, were not passionate enough.

“They (players of overseas descent) don’t have the passion to play for Nigeria. I met some of them after we failed to qualify (for the 2022 World Cup) at the airport when I was returning to England,” he added.

“They left the country the following day after the defeat to Ghana. They didn’t care how they threw the country into sadness.  The NFF must enforce discipline in the team.”