Ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers which start in March, Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr has revealed he hopes some of the foreign-born players would have pledged their international futures to Nigeria by then.
Since Rohr arrived, there has been an influx of players with dual nationality representing Nigeria. The likes of Alex Iwobi, William Ekong, Leon Balogun, Joe Aribo, Ola Aina, Tyronne Ebuehi, Semi Ajayi and Maduka Okoye have all pledged their international future to Nigeria.
And that won’t change anytime soon despite calls from critics for Rohr to include NPFL in his Super Eagles squad. The former Bordeaux manager revealed he hopes some of the players they have been trying to convince to switch allegiance to Nigeria would have done so before the World Cup qualifiers start in March 2020.
Speaking on about his plans for the World Cup qualifiers on Super Eagles youtube page, the former Burkina Faso manager said he will also keep an eye on some of his regulars.
“I think at first, we have to follow what they are doing, our players, Rohr said. We have to take some news on our injured goalkeeper, Uzoho who has been operated with success last week.
“And we have still to work on some departments in our team, and like we do always, we will scout our players, we will watch the games, we will go and meet some of them, and we will have also perhaps good news if one of the big players we are searching for who can play for two countries accepts to play for us.”
The 2022 World Cup qualifiers for African section will kick off in March with the draws set to be conducted later this year. The teams will be split into ten groups of four teams with the winners advancing to play each other in a home and away tie to determine Africa’s five representatives.