Eguavoen reveals plans for NPFL stars and what is holding him back from handing them Eagles call-ups

Augustine Eguavoen has emphasized  that Nigerian Professional Football League stars stand a chance of breaking into the Super Eagles team in future, provided they are exposed and understand the playing philosophy of the national team.

The 1994 Africa Cup of Nations-winning fullback has borrowed a page from his predecessor, Gernot Rohr by not looking the way of players in the Nigerian top-flight, having called up only foreign-based professional players for the upcoming games with Ghana.

Eguavoen will run the rule over the home based players in the coming months when the training camp begins for the 2022 African Nations Championship qualifiers and the plan is for the outstanding players to be drafted into the main Super Eagles team.

"We are supposed to go to Congo, then the tournament was cancelled again, so if you don't have the avenue of testing players, give them exposure for international friendly games it's always going to be difficult except there's a long term camping, organize tournaments," Eguavoen said to Elegbete TV Sports.

"Now CHAN will start very soon, hopefully the boys will come to camp so if we get the CHAN team together and then after the CHAN periodically they come, bring one, remove another one, elimination by substitution then we have a crop of players to pick from."

Having attended several league games this year, Eguavoen noted that the playing style of most clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League is different from that of the Super Eagles, adding that it is holding him back from including the home based players in the main Super Eagles squad.

"Today Akwa played a different system, Enyimba plays a different system, Shooting Stars, Rivers United, I have watched league games so how can you bring a player and put him there.

"I remember way back in Holland you can take a player from VVV Venlo and put in Holland national team because it's the same style.

"If these guys are not trained and let them know how we want them to play and how we want them to operate, it's always going to be difficult except we come together for a very long period of time and then start teaching them the way we want them to play and everything will be okay," he added.

Eguavoen took a home-based player, John Noble to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations but the Enyimba glovesman was not named in the matchday squad for three of the four matches played by the Super Eagles in Cameroon.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

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