Umar Sadiq’s invitation to the Super Eagles for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations Group D qualifying fixtures against Benin Republic and Rwanda has left a medley of reactions from some Nigerian football stakeholder in its wake.
The Real Sociedad striker is currently living on the fringes at his Spanish La Liga side and given cameo roles when used sparingly.
His name stood out for the wrong reasons when Augustine Eguavoen released a list of 32 players for the matches. While many opine that he isn’t a call-up in place of other in-form strikers deserving the Nigerian shirt, others didn’t see anything wrong with his invitation.
“The yardstick Austin Eguavoen uses to invite players to the national team is what I don’t understand,” stated David Doherty, a UK-based sports administrator who contested the NFF presidency at the last electoral congress in Benin City.
He added, “You invited Umar Sadiq, who has played only six matches this season for Real Sociedad. Out of the six games, four he came in as a sub and started in just two games. He has not scored a single goal this season.
“You left out Tolu Arokodare, who has played 13 games for Genk and scored eight goals with two assists. The coach should tell us why Tolu Arokodare is not getting an invitation to the Super Eagles.”
Sa’eed Olamilekan Bello disagrees, “In as much as it’s good to invite players to national team duty based on their current form and fitness level, I think it’s a bit wrong as well, criticising the selection/invitation of the coach all the time. This is the problem we Africans are having through the usage of social media. The coaches need our support more than the criticism.
“How many of the other players performing so well at club level have been able to transform that to national level? So do we call for them to be dropped as well?
“Let him invite others that are fit, and let’s see whether they can outperform their club form with the national colour.
“We all saw what Southgate did with Harry Maguire during his reign, despite many calls for him to drop him, but he kept on inviting his trusted ally, and he was delivering for him, despite being a serial bench warmer at Manchester United those seasons. So we’re going to say Southgate too was trying to balance the UK quota with that invitation?
“Surely, we can do more as professionals, writers, and football analysts.
“Moffi came, didn’t perform; Boniface has been around now for some games, and still not delivering. So it seems nothing wrong with giving another dimension to the squad through other invites.”
Ay Adetayo stated, “When you give a backhand, you will be selected by the Nigeria National Team. Tolu needs to join the program if he wants to play for Nigeria. Not everyone who played for Nigeria earned the merit to be on the national team. Bribing is on the national team, and who do you know?”
Canice Dim admonishes, “His time will come. Calm down. Sadiq is proven. Your Genk man is not yet proven in the Super Eagles. Let’s give it time. His time will come. Let the Genk man keep working hard. Do you remember Peter Ijeh of Sweden that year?
He was the highest goal scorer in the Swedish league at a time. The hype. When he came to the Super Eagles, he flopped. Let’s give it time. His time will come.”
Emmanuel Temuru goes sarcastically, “What do you want to understand? That’s the reason he worked with a tyrant (Victor Osimhen) to remove Finidi George. Tell me a comparison between Finidi and Eguavoen.”
Recall that Eguavoen was heavily and widely criticised for inviting Bejamin Taminu in the last two matches even though the young defender was struggling to make his debut for Crawling Town, where he has now featured prominently in three Championship matches.
Credit: punchng.com
