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‘NFF will not stop Enyeama from leaving Eagles’

By Editor
09 October 2015   |   2:20 am
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said that it could not stop Super Eagles goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, from quitting the national team, reports the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Enyeama, through his Instagram page yesterday, said he was retiring from the national team. He also said he was no more available for international duties after…
NFF President, Amaju Pinnick.

NFF President, Amaju Pinnick.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said that it could not stop Super Eagles goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, from quitting the national team, reports the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Enyeama, through his Instagram page yesterday, said he was retiring from the national team.

He also said he was no more available for international duties after 13 years of national service but the NFF, through its Assistant Director, Communications, Ademola Olajire, said in Abuja that it would not beg Enyeama to rescind his decision.

He said: “We heard about his quitting the national team on his Instagram page; if somebody says he is retiring from the national team, what are we going to do, to beg him?

“We don’t know if he is leaving the national team because of his quarrel with the coach. He just said on his Instagram page that he is leaving the national team.

“So, why should we be finding out whether he left because of the rift? The player has gone out of the camp, what do you want us to do; he has left the camp and he did not tell anybody that he was leaving.

“There is a match today (Oct. 8), so, I don’t know what the federation should do. When somebody leaves the national team, what can we do about it?”

The relationship between Enyeama and Coach Sunday Oliseh went sour following the coach’s decision to strip the goalkeeper of the captain’s band and the selection of Ahmed Musa as the new skipper.

The quarrel had erupted on Tuesday at the team’s camp in Belgium where the team had been preparing for two friendly matches billed for yesterday and Sunday, Oct. 11, against DR Congo and Cameroon respectively.

Enyeama had reported late to camp, after staying back in Nigeria last weekend to be involved in the burial ceremony of his late mother in Uyo, Akwa Ibom. But, having missed the team’s last set of games against Tanzania and Niger, Oliseh said there was a need to have a player who was regular in the team as the captain.

4 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    It is indeed strange for people to quit their jobs after 13 years through the social media. Only the players present and Sunday Oliseh know the exact graphic details of what transpired in that Belgian hotel, and all our comments are merely speculative and cojectural. However, a coach must instil discipline in a team and if it requires a change of skipper, so be it. If the NFF reverses the decision it would set a precedent, and one day a player might refuse to be substituted, or query his non-inclusion in the starting line-up. The NFF must dust up its CODE OF CONDUCT document and apply its provisions swiftly.

    • Author’s gravatar

      When your mind is made up to take a self-serving position in an issue, it becomes natural to assume ignorance in order to appear unbiased, otherwise how could you condemn Enyeama’s method of communicating his retirement from the Eagles without considering the circumstances surrounding it?

      By the way, what is unclear to you on this issue? That Olise frowned at Enyeama’s late arrival to camp and he considered it an act of indiscipline? That the reason for being late was that Enyeama buried his mother over the weekend? That he so unceremoniously took the captain’s band from him and ordered him to shut up and sit down when Enyeama wanted to defend his coming late to camp? What is speculative in this issue?

      Bottom line is Oliseh despises Enyeama and seizes the opportunity to humiliate and sideline him, thinking he has got a worthy replacement in Carl Iheme who had a superlative performance in Tanzania.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Oliseh as coach is not mature enough to handle the team. He is not unifing. Always in some quarel or fighting or the other. To me, i just think he is too bossy. Eyeama is one of our finest. Any coach that cannot manage eyeama, cannot the team.