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A grey area Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr touched on during Thursday’s press conference was the influx of foreign-born players into the national team, with some fans expressing concern that the Super Eagles are losing their identity of being a robust and physical playing side.
Looking at Rohr’s ideal starting lineup, four foreign-born players namely William Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun, Ola Aina and Joe Aribo are part of the team.
The German football tactician has been accused of preferring foreign-born players over homegrown players.
Setting the record straight, Rohr told reporters : “We never consider the places they were born, when we make our list we only look at the quality of the players, it doesn’t mater where they are born, it matters only how well they can play, we did like this all the time.
“Unfortunately we could not take any player from Nigeria now because they didn’t play since March so it was not possible for them to come in.
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“I don’t even know which one is born in Europe or Nigeria, I see the players, the players are proud to be here, the new players say they want to play for their fatherland.”
To buttress his point, Rohr cited Hoffenheim center back Kevin Akpoguma, saying the former Germany U20 skipper is fully committed to the Super Eagles, is one hundred percent Nigerian and eager to face his country of birth at the World Cup.
“It’s wonderful when I hear Akpoguma, born in Neustadt close to my city, the father is from Benin (Delta State) I think, he’s proud to play for Nigeria but he played already for Germany.
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“He told me this morning it would be wonderful if he could play in the World Cup against Germany, he’s 100 percent Nigerian but of course his heart is also a little bit where he’s born, but you cannot say because he’s born abroad that he’s not 100 percent Nigerian, it’s not good.
“The only thing that counts is that they want to play for us, the motivation is here….
“The discussion in Nigeria that we prefer the players born in Europe is not good at all,” he concluded.
Nine foreign-born players including Racing Genk’s Cyriel Dessers and LASK’s Tobias Lawal are presently with the Super Eagles in Austria ahead of today’s friendly with Algeria.
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