A former Super Eagles winger, Tijani Babangida said players like Kenneth Omeruo, William Troost-Ekong and Jamilu Colins who play in the Europe’s second tier division do not deserve to be called up to the Nigeria’s national team.
Babangida, who is also the President, Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria, made this known at the weekend in an interview.
Omeruo stars for Leganes in the Spanish Segunda division while Troost-Ekong and Collins ply their trade in the English Championship with Watford and the German Bundesliga 2 with Paderborn respectively.
The former winger said: “The country needs to have a system in place to groom players from the local league for the national teams. The coach and his backroom staff need to stay in the country to train the local players.
“We don’t have a strong national team. Players playing in the lower division in Europe should not be invited to the national team.
“In Europe, they don’t invite players who are not first team regulars to the national team but here (in Nigeria) we even invite inactive players for games.”
The former Ajax and Genclerbirligi star said Nigeria has never given a free hand to a coach as it has given to Gernot Rohr.
