Goals Crazy Ideye Yet To Get Eagles’ Call Up

Super Eagles and Sochaux of France striker, Brown Ideye, was a nightmare for defenders in the French Ligue going by the number of goals he scored and yet he has not got the attention of the handlers of the national team led by Samson Siasia.

Ideye at the weekend, clinched a Europa League spot at the expense of St. Etienne, thanks to a pair of goals, but it is, however, disheartening that Siasia, who once laced his boots for Nantes, has consistently snubbed him from national team call up.

The 15-goal hero, like his compatriot and West Bromwich Albion of England striker, Osaze Odemwingie, who was also dropped from the 1 June international friendly against Argentina and the 2012 Nations Cup qualifier against the Wayla Antelopes of Ethiopia on 5 June in Addis Ababa.

Ideye also scored two goals in Sochaux’s 4-0 victory over Bordeaux and when Sochaux thrashed Stade Rennes 5-1, he was on target. In February, he was on target but they ended up losing 2-1 to Marseille and in April, Ideye was the hero for Sochaux as he snatched the last-gasp winner in added time in their 2-1 win over Brest. He scored the second goal for Sochaux who won 3-0 at Caen, in November last year.

However, the decision of Siasia to snub him has continued to elicit a lot of reactions from soccer plaudits. Some of the respondents, who spoke to P.M. Sports on the snubbing of the goal poacher, had different things to say. The divergent opinions range from castigating Siasia for not calling Ideye to replace Odemwingie, labeling the Technical Department of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) headed by Barrister Chris Green, as not doing enough to scrutinise the list submitted and that they failed to comb the nooks and crannies of the world.

Coach of Access Bombers, a grassroots football club, Ndudim Adegwah, questioned the rationale behind the exclusion of Ideye, who had maintained top form since arriving in the modest and also helping them to qualify for the Europa League. He is of the opinion that despite Ideye coming out of injury and hitting 15 goals, he believes that the striker still deserves an invitation, while declaring that most of the players invited by Siasia are not regulars in their respective clubs.

Another grassroots coach, Emma Anyanwu, who also shares similar view with Adegwah, said the dropping of Osaze and the decision to ignore Ideye may be Siasia’s albatross, adding that Nigerians are like the Romans, who will praise you when you are doing well and immediately things are not going on well, they would start calling for your head.

According to Anyanwu, “Siasia should be careful with his invitation and exclusion of players. He should also not forget that Nigerians fought for him to be appointed as coach of the Super Eagles and as such, see his appointment as a call to national service and not to witch hunting. If the results are no longer coming, Nigerians would call for his head.” Joshua Iweriebor, who plays for Ultimate Stars FC, said that Siasia has not been critical with his invitation of players to the national team. He opined that invitation of players for matches should be based on merit and not on favouritism.

According to him, “after I took a critical look at the list of invited players for the friendly against Argentina and the qualifying match against Ethiopia, I discovered the players were not invited based on present form and wonder what a player like Isaac Promise, a player that is coming out of injury, is doing on that list. Siasia should not use the national team as an avenue to rehabilitate some players, I mean some spent forces are on that list and it is not supposed to be so.”

—Adebobola Alawode