Fans have expressed their views about the excluded players from the first list of foreign-based players called up by the Super Eagles coach on Monday
In a sign of changing fortunes for Nigerian players, readers of Goal have declared the exclusion of Odion Ighalo as the most surprising among all major names left out by coach Sunday Oliseh.
The Watford striker was voted far ahead of the Chelsea duo of John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses as well as Manchester City youngster Kelechi Iheanacho.
A massive 52.1 per cent of Goal readers named Ighalo as their most surprising exclusion from Oliseh’s 18-man list of Europe-based players, which included recalls for strikers Emmanuel Emenike and Anthony Ujah.
The voting stats show just how much Ighalo’s stock has risen since he scored his first goal for the Super Eagles against Chad in June, as well as his blistering start to the English Premier League season where he has scored once after two matches.
Coach Oliseh has explained the decision not to invite the forward.
“Well, Odion Ighalo is in our plans but for this first game against Tanzania, we are only inviting two players for each position,” Oliseh told media on Tuesday.
"We are trying to get competition into positions. It is useless bringing in three professional players for the same position, paying their flight tickets and everything, bringing strikers and not being able to use one or two of them.”
Meanwhile, confidence in midfielder Mikel’s abilities has continued to dip as he has failed to start a game with the Blues this season, and it was responsible for him coming second with 17.3 per cent of votes in the Goal poll.
His team mate Victor Moses also polled 14.3 per cent while youngster Iheanacho finished surprisingly fourth with 12.5 per cent as many await his first call up to the Super Eagles. [GOAL]
Find below the full voting results:
17.3% John Obi Mikel
52.1% Odion Ighalo
14.3% Victor Moses
12.5% Kelechi Iheanacho
0.5% John Ogu
2.8% Babatunde Michael
0% Anderson Esiti
0.5% Aaron Samuel
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