Nigerians Criticise Ighalo’s Return To S’Eagles

On Monday, the coach of Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr released a 24-man list for the two final games of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers but the inclusion of Odion Ighalo has generated a lot of talks with attacks on the nation’s football governing body,
Ighalo retired from the national team shortly after the 2019 African Cup of Nations and the rumours of him returning to the Super Eagles has been flying around for some weeks with many in disbelief of it happening until the event unfolded on Monday when the Eagles 24-man list was released. NFF President, Amaju Pinnick was the first person to hint about Ighalo returning before being confirmed by the head coach, Gernot Rohr.
This resulted into series of attacks on the NFF from football loving Nigerians who trooped to the official Facebook page of the Super Eagles to express their displeasure.
“This coach doesn’t know what he’s doing by begging Ighalo (back to the team).” Fortune Ayoku fumed.
Wasiu Alabi, a Facebook user wrote, “nine defenders, five midfielders and seven strikers. What’s the name of this Coach please? 5 years in the saddle, he has not done anything spectacular with the array of stars at his disposal.”
Owolabi Caleb queried the rationale behind the invitation, “What is Ighalo doing in this squad? Why is he back in the team? We have many young and talented Nigerians in the diaspora waiting for call up, Taiwo Awoniyi is doing very fine in Union Berlin, Oliseh in Crystal Palace hasn’t committed his national call up with either England or France, who is trying to convince him to play for Eagles?