Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle will be without the first choice regular duo of midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and defender Semi Ajayi in their upcoming World Cup Qualifiers games.

Chelle will hand the team for the first time in March when they take on Rwanda and Zimbabwe respectively in the world cup qualifiers, seeking for their first win after four games in the qualifiers. A poor run that has seen them fall four points behind the leaders Rwanda dropping to 5th in the six team group.

Ahead of the games, Chelle has been told he will be without the services of Dele-Bashiru and Ajayi who have been confirmed injured by their respective teams. Their absence will no doubt alter the plans of the coach.

Ajayi’s absence as we first reported will no doubt hit the hardest as it was hugely felt when he missed the final games of the AFCON qualifiers, where the team drew with Benin Republic and lost to Rwanda at home in November last year.

Captain William Troost-Ekong is another injury doubt in the build up to both games after missing the last two games of his club Al-Kholood in Saudi Arabia. He is in a race against time to be fit for both games due to a muscular issue.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Former captain of the senior national team of Nigeria and Africa football legend Austine Okocha has fired at the disrespectful comments made by former footballer turned pundit Jamie Carragher on the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Carragher has come under serious attack for his comments after downplaying the AFCON saying it’s not a major tournament, while discussing the impact of Mohammed Salah this season and if winning the AFCON will help him lift the best player in the world attack.

His statement hasn’t gone down well among past and present African footballers and Okocha , who won the tournament in 1994 with Nigeria and also played in four different editions has weigh in on the matter.

Speaking in a video made available to our editorial team, the former Bolton Wanderers midfield maestro said Carragher doesn’t deserve the attention he is getting because of the kind of career he had.

“There are some players that will say some things. You just overlook them. If you look at their career and the type of football that they played you can understand. I mean you won’t want your son to be like Carragher. So he can never appreciate African football or the talents that come from Africa”, he said.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

The senior national team of Nigeria made a move to convince 22 year old Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu to switch his nationality from Germany and play for Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Atubolu has been in fine form this season with eight clean sheets in 20 games, which includes not conceding in the last four games totalling 400 minutes. He has also stopped four penalties this season.

His fine form made our editorial team to make a check with the NFF on approaching the shot stopper who has Nigerian descent to play for the Super Eagles, as he is still eligible despite representing Germany at various youth levels.

” Atubolu is a closed chapter for now. You can go and verify we made overtures to him for a year and even in December. However he seems to be very confident of making the grades with Germany. We have to respect his wishes”, a chieftain of the NFF told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

” The reason why we kept pushing for him is because he is young and could be the first choice for a very long time. He feels Nigerian and talks about loving the culture but it’s not in our hands for him to play for Super Eagles”.

Sami Abdullahi

Former coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has picked two players who he feels are the most important to the team ahead of the world cup qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Rohr who is now in charge of Benin Republic handled the Super Eagles of Nigeria for almost six years, and finds his team in the same world cup qualifiers group with Nigeria. They were also in the same group for the AFCON qualifiers and both team made it to the tournament.

They will return to world cup qualifiers action with Benin Republic who are joint leaders with Rwanda going away to Zimbabwe before hosting South Africa at home. Nigeria on the other hand will be up against Rwanda in Kigali before welcoming Zimbabwe to the Godswill Akpabio stadium in Uyo

Speaking ahead of his team’s game, Rohr emphasized on the need to have his best players available, using the Super Eagles as an example of a weak team without the duo of Moses Simon and Ademola Lookman.

” For games like this you need your best players available. It is the same for most teams because some players make the difference. If you look at Nigeria for instance despite having so many quality players, they hardly play well without the duo of Ademola Lookman and Moses Simon”, he said.

He said the duo make the team thick in the final third with Simon’s ability to create chances complementing the ability of Lookman to bury them.

” You see Simon can create dangerous situations while Lookman can score from the tightest of spaces. It’s the same for many teams around the world”.

The senior national team of Nigeria is facing a mini crisis in defence going into the world cup qualifiers games in March against Rwanda and Zimbabwe respectively, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Captain of the team William Troost-Ekong is in a race against time to be fit for both games, but his regular partner in defence Semi Ajayi won’t be available. The crucial nature of the the games is why head coach Eric Chelle is sweating on their fitness.

Nigeria are yet to win a game in the series after four round of games, and Chelle will be in charge as the third coach to handle them after four games with the exit of Jose Peseiro and Finidi George respectively.

The games in March will be his first with the team, but he won’t be having the full compliment of his players from the look of things, especially in defence with the doubts about the aforementioned duo.

However he can breathe a huge sigh of relief when he consider that Joe Aribo, who is traditional a central midfielder or attacking midfielder have been deployed as a center back at English Premier League side Southampton in the last three games.

Coach Ivan Juric have been impressed with his performances, despite the fact that they are doomed to be likely relegated at the end of the season, following their return to the English Premier League from the Championship.

Ade Emmanuel

Former captain of the senior national team of Nigeria John Obi Mikel has fired back at comments made by Jamie Carragher playing down the Africa Cup of Nations as a major tournament.

Former Liverpool defender Carragher suggested Salah would have to win the Champions League in order to win the Ballon d’Or because Afcon is not recognised by voters as a “major tournament”.

He added: “I think the problem is the fact he’s with Egypt, and he’s probably not playing in the major tournament as such, or maybe got a great chance of winning, I think it’s either the Champions League or the major tournament. Normally, the player who excels in that.”

Carragher’s repeated use of the term “major tournament” irked fellow pundits Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge.

Richards stressed Afcon was a “major tournament”, saying: “A lot of people are at home saying ‘They aren’t taking it seriously.’ Afcon is a big tournament.”

Former Liverpool striker Sturridge said: “It’s a fact. If you win the Euros or Copa America it’s deemed to be big – so the Afcon is at the same level.”

Carragher responded: “Egypt are not going to win the World Cup are they?” And when Richards tried to explain, he cut him off and said “Oh God.”

Responding through his podcast The Obione show , Mikel who won the AFCON in 2013 with the Super Eagles in South Africa says Carragher doesn’t know what it takes to win with his national team.

“You don’t know what it takes to win with your national team. You can’t disrespect such a wonderful tournament like that. People in Africa die for the Africa Cup of Nations. Children, kids grow up watching their idols, watching their country, supporting their country because the Africa Cup of Nations is what inspires them to be the next generation.

The influx of African players in the Premier League, coming to Europe to play is because they grew up watching the Africa Cup of Nations. 2 billion people watch the AFCON”.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Nigeria U20 team proved too strong for their counterparts for Cote d’Ivoire with an empathic 2-0 win in a friendly game played at the Stade Félix Houphouët Boigny.

The game was meant to prepare both teams for the upcoming U20 AFCON , with Nigeria replacing their earlier opponent Egypt after the draw which saw both teams in the same group.

Tournament hosts Cote d’Ivoire were drawn in group A alongside DR Congo, Ghana, Tanzania and a yet to be named team from central Africa. On their part the Flying Eagles will go in search of a ticket for the world cup with Egypt, South Africa and Morocco in group B, popularly termed as the group of death.

Coached by Aliyu Zubairu they went ahead in the 63rd minute with captain Daniel Bameyi scoring from the spot, after a foul on enterprising forward Divine Oliseh.

Oliseh capped an all round performance with the second goal of the game for Nigeria, ten minutes from full time to complete a 2-0 win ahead of their second friendly game against same team on Friday.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Head coach of Middlesbrough Michael Carrick was full of joy as his team brought to an end a run of five games without a win following a 3-1 win over Stoke City yesterday in the English Championship, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

The win moves Carrick’s team to within four points of the promotion play off spots , and also brought temporary respite to the coach who has been heavily scrutinized and also questioned about his abilities due to the slump.

His situation is not too different from Nigeria international forward Kelechi Iheanacho, who joined the team in January on loan from Spanish LaLiga side Sevilla. He was dropped to the bench after failing to make the most of the last two games he played.

Iheanacho looked assured in possession but off the pace after a torrid time in Sevilla, where he barely played and had to run back to England after six months. He joined the team in the summer on a free transfer from Leicester City.

Carrick who took the bold decision to bench the 29 year old was however excited by his conduct from the bench, and spoke about it saying it gives him hope that the team will be alright.

The Boro head coach said: “Kel didn’t play tonight and he’s on loan. He’s played in the games that have proven difficult when we haven’t won. He’s done well but we changed it tonight.

“He celebrated the most of anyone when that first goal went in. He was bouncing off the bench and celebrating like anything. When I turned around and saw that, I thought, we’re going to be all right.”

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Nigeria international defender defender Semi Ajayi won’t be available for the world cup qualifiers games against Rwanda and Zimbabwe respectively, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Ajayi who has been a mainstay in the team the past two years returned from a harmstring surgery which kept him out for three months a week ago, but 41 minutes into his first start since November he was substituted.

Reports says he suffered a relapse of the same harmstring injury which required surgery, and there are fears that he could miss the rest of the season if he is made to undergo another surgery in the coming days.

He is set to be out for the next three weeks in the interim, effectively ruling him out of the Super Eagles games in March. His absence will be a big blow to the new coach of the Nigerian team Eric Chelle.

Chelle is also facing the possibility of going into both games without captain William Troost-Ekong , who is currently battling a muscular injury that has kept him out of Al-Kholood last two games in Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

All eyes will be on the Super Eagles of Nigeria when games in the world cup qualifiers resumes across Africa in March, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

The team will go into the qualifiers with a new coach in Eric Chelle, their third after four rounds of games following the exit of Jose Peseiro and subsequently Finidi George with the latter lasting just a month at the helm.

Chelle met the team four points behind leaders Rwanda who will be their first opponent in March and also Chelle’s first game in charge, before the game against Zimbabwe, he will be aiming to lead them to their first win after four games.

Rwanda are joint leaders with the same point as South Africa and Benin Republic, but ahead on a superior goal difference. The fact that Super Eagles are four points behind us something that the Belgian coach of South Africa says it’s a surprise.

“I am surprised that Nigeria are four points behind us because they have too much quality. I believe they will come back by the next window (March).

“All the teams in our group are still in the running (to qualify for World Cup).”

Ade Emmanuel