Remo Stars’ Eagles or home-based Super Eagles?

On Tuesday, August 5, Nigeria’s home-based senior men’s team, Super Eagles B began their campaign at the ongoing Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) on a sloppy note, losing 0-1 to the defending champions, the Teranga Lions of Senegal. The 8th edition of the tournament, exclusively designated for footballers who are plying their trade in the domestic […]

On Tuesday, August 5, Nigeria’s home-based senior men’s team, Super Eagles B began their campaign at the ongoing Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) on a sloppy note, losing 0-1 to the defending champions, the Teranga Lions of Senegal.

The 8th edition of the tournament, exclusively designated for footballers who are plying their trade in the domestic leagues of their respective countries on the continent, is jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The opening defeat came contrary to the expectations that the home-based Eagles would use the delayed 2024 edition of the biennial tournament to make amends for their past failures.

It is on record that Super Eagles B are yet to taste victory in the championship. The closest they came to winning was in 2018 when they finished as runners-up after suffering a scandalous 0-4 loss to host Morocco in the Casablanca final. Four years earlier, they had managed to win bronze in South Africa under Coach Stephen Keshi of blessed memories.

Unfortunately, what most Nigerians saw on Tuesday from the Eagles didn’t suggest any hunger for the elusive trophy. Apart from few of them, like the young and energetic Leonard Ngenge and Junior Nduka, who captained the team, the rest of the players played what we used to call kick and follow. They depended more on physicality than skills to win, and in the end, they were beaten by a lone goal.

While the NPFL stars were struggling to either control the ball or retain possession, many wondered whether it was the national team of Nigeria that was playing against Senegal or an amateur club side.

There was almost nothing to suggest that the players the team paraded were the best in the Nigerian domestic league. Even players like Sodiq Ismail and Alimi Sikiru, both of Remo Stars, who had tasted action with the main Super Eagles, didn’t fare better.

What dominated discussions in the course of the match was the number of Remo Stars players in the squad. Even before the team travelled out to Zanzibar, where they rounded off preparations for the tournament, the final list of players was queried by football stakeholders because it was dominated by one club – Remo Stars.

Nine members of the 23-man squad in Zanzibar are Remo Stars players. Captain Nduka Junior, Sodiq Ismaila, Adedayo Olamilekan, Haruna Hadi, Akani Qudus, Tochukwu Michael, Alex Oyowah, Sikiru Alimi and Jabbar Malik are from the reigning NPFL champions. Ikorodu City and Rivers United have three players each in the team. Kwara United have two while Plateau United, Abia Warriors, Nasarawa United, Enugu Rangers, 3SC and Enyimba have one player each.

In fact, five of the six midfielders are from Remo Stars. Otaniyi Taofik of Rivers United is the player that has stopped Remo Stars from making a clean sweep of the midfield positions. However, in the opening match, there was no understanding among the Remo Stars players who anchored the midfield. In a 4-4-2 formation, Tochukwu Michael, Jabbar Malik, Adedayo Lekan and Akani Qudus played as if they were coming together for the first time.

The lack of team cohesion compelled many to question the rationale behind the several weeks of camping in Nigeria and Zanzibar. As a matter of fact, many fans thought that Chelle, who had spent more time with the home-based Eagles than the A team, was on the verge of producing a formidable squad, but the players didn’t show that they had learnt much under the first team coach.

If the brand of football the home-based Eagles played is a sign of what the coach has to offer, then we should better forget about the 2026 World Cup. For many, the CHAN tournament is a chance for the coach to clear all doubts about his technical capabilities. Unfortunately, the match against Senegal didn’t do much to change some perceptions about him.

In fact, Chelle started the match with seven of the 9 Remo Stars’ players and kept faith with them even when it became obvious that some went missing. It was as if the players were shareholders in the team and must not be taken off.

Sadly, with four minutes to the end, he introduced the reigning highest goal-scorer in the NPFL, Anas Yusuf of Nasarawa United and Enugu Rangers’ striker, Godwin Obaje. It is doubtful if the substitutes managed to touch the ball before the blow of the final whistle. The coach ought to have known that it normally takes a substitute at least two or three minutes to settle into a match, so introducing two strikers with only four minutes to go was unreasonable.

From the foregoing, I want everyone to understand that the players currently representing Nigeria at the 2024 CHAN may not be the best we have in the NPFL. Nigeria is blessed with abundant talents, so the decision to select nearly half of the national team from a single club is a poor one.

It is also worrisome that big clubs in the North, like Kano Pillars, Katsina United and El-Kanemi Warriors, do not have a single player in the team. I doubt if the North is too poor to support the national team with a few quality players.

Maybe Remo Stars took advantage of their huge contribution to the team’s preparation to dominate the final list. It will be recalled that the home-based Eagles camped for several weeks in Ikenne from where they jetted out to Zanzibar. Maybe the high number of the “Sky Blues” in the squad is an indirect compensation for the kind gesture.

Of course, all the players Chelle has taken to Zanzibar are Nigerians, but we do not have to choose personal gain over national interest. One is not advocating a quota system in team selection, but there must be fairness and a bit of national spread, else we would end up with mediocre performances like the one we witnessed in the match against Senegal.  

However, it is not too late for the team to make amends. With two more group matches against Congo and Sudan, the Eagles can re-adjust their sail and qualify from Group D. In fact, Chelle must cautiously re-jig his squad in the next match. If I were him, I would ask Anas Yusuf to lead the attack on Tuesday instead of Alimi and Ijoma Anthony, who did not produce a single shot on target in the opening game.

Moreover, apart from national pride, members of the home-based Eagles should be motivated by the huge cash prize of $3.5 million from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), as well as the newly introduced N150 million cash reward by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to win their first-ever CHAN title.

Therefore, someone close to the players should psych them up that losing an opening match is not the end of the road. The Super Eagles were walloped 5-1 by Algeria in the opening match of the 1990 AFCON in Algiers, but they recovered from that major setback to finish as runners-up. In fact, they narrowly lost the final 0-1 to the same Desert Foxes of Algeria who hosted the tournament.