Although his list of 26 players for the two friendly matches against Mali and Luxembourg did not include any home based player, Super Eagles care-taker coach, Salisu Yusuf has said he has nothing against players in the local league.
As part of their preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the Super Eagles are billed to first play Mali on May 27 in France before taking on Luxembourg on June 1.
Speaking to Daily Trust, the coach explained that his decision to exclude local league players was not to show any contempt but to give the technical crew the opportunity to look at more foreign based players in order to beef up the team.
He said when that is done, another opportunity would be given to the local players to come in and also compete for positions in the team as he said the intention is to ensure that each position boasts of at least two to three quality players.
Yusuf maintained that as a product of the domestic league, there is no way he would completely overlook the talents that abound in the Nigerian Professional Football League.
“The idea is to look at more foreign based players and bring in more competition into the team and then introduce home based players to increase the available options in each wing.
“At the appropriate time we can then bring in home based players so we can have two to three players in each position,” he explained.
Furthermore, the coach said going by the calculations of the NFF, it would cost less money to bring foreign based players to the venues of the friendly matches.
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