Our Reporter
Former Nigeria international Lukman Haruna has applauded the exciting and youthful Super Eagles under German coach Gernot Rohr, even as he advised against bringing spent forces back to the team.
Haruna, a FIFA U-17 World Cup winner in 2007, said he was impressed with the quality at the disposal of the German coach ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers.
“We have a very good team at the moment and for me, I think we should give room for the new players,” the 29-year-old midfielder who stars for the Super Eagles at South Africa 2010 World Cup said in Lagos yesterday.
“We are blessed with talents and the best should be in the team; we really need these young talents in the team at the moment, they are very good, we will go far in any tournament we play at,” he added.
Rohr is always proud of his young wards as he took the youngest squad with an average age of 25.9 to the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 and as recent as June 2019, the Super Eagles were joint-third youngest squad with an average age of 24.8 at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
“We don’t need any old man in the team at this moment, “noted Haruna who recently signed for FC Ararat Yerevan. “We have a lot of talents, and if continue like that, the future is bright.”
Meanwhile, the former Dynamo Kyiv midfielder opined that there was nothing wrong in enlisting Nigerian players who were born outside the country to play for the Super Eagles.
“I don’t think there should be any difference, no matter where you are born, as long as you are a Nigerian, and then they have equal right as those born in the country,” he said.
Haruna who started his professional football with Monaco, however, advised Super Eagles forward
Victor Osimhen to stay for at least one more season in the French Ligue 1 with Lille to gain more
experience before moving to another league.
Leave a Reply