Yobo: Babangida, Others Back Keshi

Chief Coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi has been commended for dropping skipper of the team, Joseph Yobo from subsequent matches that the team would play.

Yobo was overlooked for last month’s 2014 World Cup qualifying match against Kenya played at the U J Esuene Stadium, Calabar leading to a huge row between the coach and his captain.

In the coming months, the Super Eagles would have busy schedules, a high-profile friendly against CONCACAF champions, Mexico in Houston, Texas, USA on 1 May, before two World Cup qualifying away matches against Kenya in Nairobi and Namibia in Windhoek that come before the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament in Brazil.

Yesterday, Keshi released a 30-man list for the busy schedules with Yobo’s name conspicuously missing.

Ex-international and former Ajax Amsterdam of The Netherlands player,  Tijani Babangida, believes Keshi is still on the right track.

With 94 caps, Yobo is the most capped Nigerian player and  the Eagles’ defender believes Keshi is being “disrespectful” to him, but Babangida reasons otherwise, saying since Keshi is in charge, he should be allowed to call the shots.

Also throwing his weight behind Keshi’s decision to drop the former Everton of England’s defender is former member of the Nigeria Football Association, NFA and football aficionado, Barrister Godwin Dudu-Orumen.

Dudu-Orumen, while speaking on Brila FM early today said  that Yobo should be grateful to Keshi for even taking him to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations because the former Marseille of France star contributed nothing to the team’s emergence as African champions.

According to Dudu-Orumen, “I wonder why Yobo is all over the place, the coach of the team knows the calibre of players that can fit into his plans and he has invited them, Yobo should at least know that he is under Keshi in the national team.”

A member of the Technical Sub Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, veteran journalist Paul Bassey, said though Keshi has drawn up his list of invited players for the busy schedule,  the sub-committee will still meet to deliberate on the list.

“Keshi is the boss, we can’t fault him on players he failed to invite. At the committee level, we are only going to deliberate on the list of players that he called up.”

—Adebobola Alawode