Sports
S’ Eagles: You Can Drop Me, Emenike Tells Keshi
Fenerbahce star
Emmanuel Emenike has said that he is prepared to stay out of the Super Eagles if coach Stephen Keshi believed he is the problem of the team.
Keshi has been quoted as saying he was unhappy with the AFCON 2013 top scorer, who he sensationally benched in last month’s AFCON qualifier against Congo in Calabar.
However, Emenike has quickly reacted to the comments of the coach, saying he has utmost respect for Keshi and will always do, but he has never been a problem to the Eagles and will never be.
“I have always treated Keshi like a father, and he has always lived in my heart to be a good father. Before now, we have been enjoying a smooth relationship and I see no reason why he should be holding grudges against me,” the star striker told Tidesports source in a most revealing interview.
“Keshi is a good coach, a coach with high pedigree. I give him all the respect I can give my father whenever I come for a national assignment.
“Before the 2013 Nations Cup, I could remember he called me to have a chat and I was ready to give him my best.
“My performance at the competition was inspired by Keshi. He showed me love, he put me through and I always respected his decisions. I never thought that I am bigger than any coach.”
He told Tidesports source that he was therefore surprised to read a comment that Keshi and some players in the team are not happy with him.
“Everything changed after the Nations Cup, everything about him towards me changed and I decided to stay on my own,” he further revealed.
“But I am very surprised by what he said that he and some players in the Eagles are not happy with me. Over what?
“I don’t want Nigerians to see me as being proud or arrogant, but if the coach thought inviting me to his team will not bring result or peace to the team, he can let me be.
“I have maintained a solid relationship to avoid quarreling with him, but if my invitation to play for Nigeria does not stand for peace, I will like to stay focused with my club.”
He added: “I have always loved to give my best for Nigeria and I always make it known that I can always fight to score goals for my country and I will not like coach Keshi to let Nigerians see me as an undisciplined player who is not ready to give them my best again.
“My Super Eagles career is as important as my club career. Coming to play for Nigeria was the biggest decision I have ever made in my life. And I appreciate the way the fans have been striving hard to cheer me up whenever I push for goal.”
Emenike further said he would appreciate it if his unhappy team mates could go public with his “sins”.
“I have never seen the Super Eagles camp as my father’s house, it’s a temporary place for everybody, and why should we be making problems for ourselves? he asked.
“As a matter of fact, I have no grudges with anybody in the team. I see everybody as my friend, I tried not to distinguish myself from any other player, as far as we have come to serve our country, we are equal.
“If Keshi thought inviting me is a problem to his selection or the team, I will prefer to stay back and maintain my big respect for him.
“The bottom line is that I don’t have problems with Keshi and I don’t have problems with him putting me on the bench. I am not bothered if he chose not to play me in a match and the fact remains that he made me in the Eagles and I will always give him his deserved respect anytime.”
Emenike has not scored for Nigeria since October last year, and that has raised questions over his commitment to the national team, but he has insisted he has been firing blanks because the chances are not being created for him again.
“At the World Cup, I played every role, of course my role is to stay in front and score goals, but in a situation where chances were not coming, it will be difficult for any striker to score,” he explained to our source.
“I am not a magician, I just laugh at some people who talk about my commitment in terms of goals. The right issue has not been addressed. At the Nations Cup, I scored goals because the chances were created and I also fought to score goals. I will score goals when the ball comes out from the right channels.
“I am never bothered by the critics, they have forgotten that form is a temporary situation, but class is always there for life, so I am not bothered.
“My commitment is always like previously, but things need to get better.”
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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