JULY 19, 2013
Taribo West
A former coach of the Super Eagles, Paul Hamilton, and ex-international, Henry Nwosu, have commended the continued exclusion of Joseph Yobo from the national team by coach Stephen Keshi, describing the latest team selection as the best for the growth of the game. That view is different from that of a former national star Taribo West, who feels Yobo still has some role to play in the team.
Yobo last featured for the team at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in February and has been excluded from the August 14 international friendly against South Africa in honour of Nelson Mandela.
Former Nigeria defender Taribo and some football pundits have criticised Keshi for leaving out Yobo in recent games, arguing that the Fenerbahce player is one of Nigeria’s brightest stars in Europe.
Taribo had pleaded with Keshi to recall the player but Hamilton and Nwosu said that including him could be detrimental to the team.
“Yobo is the longest-serving member of the Super Eagles; he started playing in the team at a very young age after featuring in the Flying Eagles. All his teammates who played in the junior team have all left international football,” Hamilton said.
“Many people pretend as if they don’t know Keshi would take all the blame if the team fail. He is in charge so he should be left to make his decision.
“Those putting pressure on Keshi to recall Yobo are troublemakers who don’t see things in terms of change and development.”
Nwosu, who commended Keshi for his bravery in keeping faith with the domestic league players, said the coach has been protecting Yobo from embarrassment.
“Yobo’s exclusion should not be seen in the negative sense. We’re talking about the national team and we’re looking forward to qualifying for the World Cup yet some people want to bring sentiment into team selection. That won’t be fair to the coach,” Nwosu said.
“Yobo is getting older and there are players who are younger and faster available for selection. If Yobo had featured in some of those games he could have run out of steam too quickly. Keshi can’t afford that because he wants to assist a player to earn more caps; it doesn’t make sense.
“Everyone should even forget this number of caps issue because it makes the players lose focus. What we should worry about is qualifying for World Cup, not a player’s individual target.”
The former Everton defender is currently Nigeria’s most capped player with 95 appearances and could have attained a century of caps if he had not been excluded from the games the Eagles have played since February.
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