Technical director of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Austin Eguavoen has expressed disappointment at the absence of home-based players from the Super Eagles squad at the recently-concluded 2025 African Cup of Nations tournament, SportPremi reports.
Despite the inclusion of a few home based players in the provisional squad for the tournament, none of them made the final 28-man list by head coach Eric Chelle for the main event in Morocco.
The list included players majorly from the European league, while goalkeeper Amas Obasogie plied his trade in Africa with Singida Black Stars in the Tanzanian league.
Nigeria went on to finish third at the tournament, for a record ninth time, capping off a very impressive outing.
Eguavoen reveals stance on the exclusion of home-based players
Speaking during an interview, Austin Eguavoen was disappointed that no single player from the Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL) made the Super Eagles squad for the tournament in Morocco.
However, he advised head coach Eric Chelle to work on including these players in the coming matches.
“I felt disappointed that we did not include some NPFL players in the AFCON squad. Some players in the team may not even get a minute of action, so why couldn’t we include a few players from the local league? At least three or four would have been better”, Eguavoen stated.
“The players are not bad, and just because we didn’t do well at CHAN doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. That said, I think this is something we need to look into because it speaks volumes when players come directly from the local league into a major tournament like AFCON.”
There is an issue. The selection of players for the Super Eagles is the responsibility of the coach. We can only advise him; we cannot force players on him. I must also say that he has a lot of respect for the players and wants to see how he can gradually bring them through. We have discussed this a few times, but the timing has to be right”, he continued.
“I believe those boys will get their chance if they continue to perform well. It’s not just about advising him—I think he will do it. He has visited some venues, but one thing I would like us to discuss and push for is for him to stay more in Nigeria. If he stays in the country more often, he will have better opportunities to visit venues and watch players. If he doesn’t, it becomes more difficult.”
