In a sudden twist that would come as a shock for players such as Heracles Amelo's Cyriel Dessers, Heerenveen's Chidera Ejuke, Crotone's Simy Nwankwo and many others who have been eyeing an invitation to play for their fatherland, Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has decided to slam the door shut on new players coming into the team.
The German tactician has made a final decision to stop sending invitations to all Nigerian-born football stars across the length and breadth of the world as there is no more room to accommodate them in his team.
The former Gabon head coach handed international debuts to Slavia Prague's Peter Olayinka, Club Brugge's Emmanuel Dennis and Rangers' Joe Aribo among others in 2019 but has revealed that such moves will be halted as the Super Eagles prepare to face Sierra Leone in 9 months time.
The Super Eagles played their last match of the year 2019 on November 17 when goals from Alex Iwobi, Samuel Chukwueze and Victor Osimhen helped Nigeria to a 4-2 victory over Lesotho with Gernot Rohr's men not scheduled to play another game until August next year.
“There are no more friendlies, so there is no more time to invite new players we don’t know,” Rohr told reporters at the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Wednesday.
“We need harmony in the team and if you are bringing in new players to do better for the team than they are doing now, which one do you want to push out of the team?
“Those players must be really better than what we have already.
“I hope everybody will be fit, we miss some players for the (AFCON) qualifiers like Oghenekaro Etebo, Bryan Idowu, who could not come. But now there is a very good competition for starting positions, which is very good for the level of the team,” he added.
“It is good to have competition and to have such good players, now we have four very good central defenders but I have to choose two or play three like we did in the second half in Lesotho.”
