Abraham wasn’t needed after all
By Moses Onyilo Adikwu
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) in recent times has been involved in somewhat of a tussle with the English FA in regards to Anglo-Nigerian players’ allegiance.
While the English FA clearly has an upper hand in convincing English youngsters of Nigerian descent to dun the white jersey of the Three Lions, The Nigerian Football Federation has still had some big wins in that regard.
The English FA in recent times had seen off any competition whatsoever from the NFF in convincing the likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor, Dele Alli amongst others to pledge their allegiance to the English national team but they didn’t find so much success in laying a strong hold on the likes of Alex Iwobi and Ola Aina who made the allegiance switch as soon as the NFF came calling.
Both players’ decision to represent Nigeria was greeted with excitements amongst the faithfuls of the Super Eagles and it also highlighted the success the present NFF administration has made in terms of tracking Nigerian football talents in the diaspora as the Amaju Pinnick led NFF has also recorded successes in countries like Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium recently.
Nigeria loosing top talents like David Alaba and Fikayo Tomori to Austria and England respectively may have been due to complacency or a lack of concrete approach from the NFF but one player has forever proven elusive for the NFF, that Player is Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham who has been one of the outstanding stars for Chelsea against all odds this season.
The 22 year old has put on sterling performances as a striker right from his time in the Chelsea academy and further loan spells at Bristol and Aston Villa were equally outstanding, little wonder Amaju Pinnick himself tried desperately to secure his services for the Super Eagles.
Despite the NFF’s constant show of interest in the Chelsea man, he opted to represent his country of birth and on 2nd November 2017, Abraham received his first Three Lions call up which was 2 months after Pinnick claimed that Abraham had switched his allegiance to Nigeria.
In October 2019, Abraham refused to rule out a possibility of representing the Super Eagles of Nigeria, a development which raised the levels of optimism in the Nigerian football fraternity but Abraham’s call-up to the English national team later that month closed a chapter of the Tammy Abraham-Nigeria love story. The striker went on to make his competitive debut for England against Czech Republic on the 11th of October 2019 which helped in committing him to England, erasing every possibility of an allegiance switch.
Abraham’s decision didn’t actually come as a blow to the Nigerian football fraternity as a couple of homegrown talents have equally excelled in Abraham’s position for their club sides, most notably, Victor Osimhen who has made somewhat of a seismic arrival at Lille in France.
The 21 year old striker has scored 18 times in 38 appearances across all competitions for French outfit LOSC Lille this season while Abraham’s 15 goals in 34 appearances across all competitions is equally impressive!
The goalscoring stats is an aspect which both players seem to be at par and they seem to have a similar style of play which has made each player to be dubbed the next Didier Drogba in their respective leagues. However, there are peculiarities in both players’ style of play.
Both players love to hold and link-up play and are also good finishers but Osimhen’s ability to take on his marker and also find the target from outside the box is an aspect which is still lacking in Abraham’s game as the Englishman is more of a close range finisher than an all round predator which makes Osimhen fit more into the Didier Drogba description.
Osimhen is a more pacy and strong striker who has proven to be a handful for any defense he’s faced this season, his performance in Lille’s 2-1 champions league loss against Chelsea in October 2019 is a perfect example as the defensive pair of Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori failed to keep the Nigerian at Bay. Abraham had scored the opener and was on the winning side but Osimhen’s solitary goal in that match for his French club was just a highlight of his performance on the night. little wonder Chelsea gaffer, Frank Lampard was full of praises for the Nigeria international.
Lampard was quoted by Lille’s official Twitter handle saying:
“Osimhen was very impressive, it was a very difficult match for our defenders. He is fast and strong. I wish him a great career.”
NFF President, Amaju Pinnick has also come out to recently state that Abraham is not a better player than Victor Osimhen. The NFF boss in an interview with Plus TV Africa was quoted by All Nigeria Soccer saying:
“We have Osimhen who is doing very well, I cannot tell you that Tammy Abraham is better than Osimhen, it’s not possible.
Pinnick also buttressed the fact that the Nigerian national team is fully covered in terms of the striking role as he pointed out Cyriel Dessers who had been in outstanding form for Dutch outfit Heracles Almelo in the Eredivise before the season was voided amidst the covid-19 pandemic.
The striker who has a Belgian father and a Nigerian mother recently pledged his international allegiance to Nigeria and he got a call-up to the Super Eagles squad for an AFCON qualifier against Sierra Leone which later got postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to Pinnick;
“When we have people like Dessers that was even selected among the Eredivisie Team of the Season, I think we are happy and we are home. A prolific goalscorer,”
The bevy of talents currently flowing into the Super Eagles is definitely a mouthwatering prospect which will most definitely provide a selection headache for coach Gernot Rohr, and Tammy Abraham may have even faced the prospect of not getting a place in the team had he made the decision to represent Nigeria.
Players like Kelechi Iheanacho, Josh Maja, Emmanuel Dennis, Chidera Ejuke have also been in fine form for their club sides this season and that goes a long way in emphasizing the point.
With Liverpool loanee, Ovie Ejaria and Bournemouth’s Philip Billing reportedly switching their allegiance to Nigeria, the thought of a golden generation of the Super Eagles being assembled would likely come to mind.
MoSoccer.net 