Why a Super Eagles return for Ighalo would represent a stagnation of Nigerian football

NFF president Amaju Pinnick revealed his intention to lure former Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo back into the national team fold while on a trip to the United Kingdom to see a number of Super Eagles stars based in the country.

Pinnick visited and took pictures with injured midfielders Wilfred Ndidi and Oghenekaro Etebo, the latter of whom will miss the upcoming African Cup of Nations after tearing his quadriceps muscle playing for Watford. Pinnick also saw Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho on his trip to the UK.

In a statement released by the president, he intimated that discussions regarding the future of the Super Eagles starting from January’s AFCON were being held in earnest, with England-born Leicester City winger Ademola Lookman fully committed to making a switch to the Super Eagles.

It was the mention of Odion Ighalo that raised eyebrows and sowed seeds of discontent among Super Eagles fans across Nigeria.

The experienced striker retired from international football after leading the Super Eagles to a bronze medal at the 2019 AFCON, finishing on top of the scoring charts with four goals in the tournament.

Pinnick made mention of the fact that the striker’s experience is still required within the national team setup, but has failed to understand and acknowledge that at 32 and with the calibre of strikers currently at the disposal of Gernot Rohr, any move for Ighalo is unnecessary and would pass the wrong message to the squad. Rohr’s insistence on Ighalo returning is beginning to look quite baffling

Now at Al Shabab in the Saudi Professional League, Ighalo has scored eight goals in nine appearances in the 2021/22 season to top the goalscoring charts in the league. However, the duo of Taiwo Awoniyi and Victor Osimhen are absolutely tearing it up at the highest level in Europe on their own.

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy opted to retire from international football in 2018 in order to allow the coach to integrate a couple of young strikers into the English national team despite his still being at the top of his game.

Even if he gets approached by the NFF, it would be in the best interest of everyone if Ighalo toes the same path as Vardy due to the quality of the young strikers currently making waves across Europe.

22-year-old Osimhen has scored nine times and assisted once in 11 outings for Napoli this season. In his fledgeling international career, the Lagos-born striker has found the net eight times in 16 appearances for the national team.

A short distance across Europe, 24-year-old Awoniyi has scored 11 times and assisted twice in 15 appearances for Union Berlin, making him the third-highest scorer in the German Bundesliga behind Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland. He made his Super Eagles debut in the 1-0 loss against Central African Republic in Lagos in October.

With 22-year-old Lorient striker Terem Moffi yet to hit the heights he did last season and Paul Onuachu scoring for fun in the Belgian Jupiler League, it is inconceivable that Rohr would want Ighalo back, especially when he prefers to play only one striker at a time.

It is widely believed that the continued pursuit of Ighalo is a waste of time and resources for a Super Eagles side that is extremely thin in the midfield positions. With Etebo and Bologna midfielder Kingsley Michael very likely to miss the AFCON, the Super Eagles only have five senior midfielders to call upon in Ndidi, Frank Onyeka, Joe Aribo, Innocent Bonke and Alex Iwobi.

The glaring lack of variety and creativity in the midfield positions has been an issue with the Super Eagles in recent months, and for some reason, the midfield issues still remain unresolved.

If the Super Eagles are to challenge for the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon come January, the NFF and coaching crew need to identify players who would actually improve the squad and not continue to embark on wild goose chases.