Frustrated Super Eagles Legend Hits Out at Nigeria for Abandoning Successful Developmental Structure

• Daniel Amokachi has urged current football administrators in Nigeria to return to the developmental structure of the past
• Nigeria failed to qualify for the World Cup after the Black Stars of Ghana edged the Super Eagles courtesy of the away goals rule
• Amokachi lauded the late Stephen Keshi who led the nation to win AFCON 2013 despite fielding a number of Nigerian-born players

Former Nigerian international Daniel Amokachi has lamented that the country has thrown away the developmental structure which is now affecting sporting activities.

‘The Bull’ made this statement in the wake of Nigeria’s World Cup miss after Black Stars qualified for the global showpiece at the expense of the Super Eagles.

In his brutal statement, Amokachi challenged the current football administrators to return to the developmental structure that was responsible for successes in the past.

In recent times, Nigeria have only relied on players who were born abroad including Ola Aina, Joe Aribo, Calvin Bassey, William Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun and Ademola Lookman.

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Amokachi then praised the late Stephen Keshi who opted for a number of home-grown players and went on to win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

He told SuperSport:

"Quality-wise we can't take it away from Nigeria. Every day Nigeria is blessed with one immigrant player who is playing out there and he'll always come up and say I turned down my birth country, I want to play for Nigeria when their country of birth never looked for them. They won't even make their birth nation squads.

"Unfortunately for us Nigeria, we've thrown away our developmental structure which we had that made us win the 1996 Olympics gold medal, that made that generation so great.

"Stephen Keshi came into play and revived it and we saw how we won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations."

Amokachi hails Osimhen

Meanwhile, Sports Brief earlier reported that Daniel Amokachi has singled out Victor Osimhen as the only player who worked tirelessly against Ghana to ensure Nigeria qualified for the 2022 World Cup.

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According to him, Osimhen knows what it means to represent Nigeria at the World Cup, something some players born abroad in the current Super Eagles team don't understand.

Amokachi noted that Osimhen knows what it takes to play for Nigeria because he once hawked pure water on Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.