Super Eagles of Nigeria midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi proved his committment to the national team prior to the June 13 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Chad when he bought the tapes of previous matches of their opponents before coming to camp.
It was learnt that the tapes were secured after the fixtures which pitted Nigeria against Egypt, Tanzania and Chad were announced by Africa’s football governing body CAF.
SportingLife gathered from an insider that the player’s gesture took his colleagues by surprise including the coaches who at that time knew nothing about their opponents.
“He was not even bothered that he bought the tapes with his money, his concern at that time was to make sure that the team watched the matches in order to have an understanding of how their opponents play,” said the source.
Asked if NFF were aware of Onazi’s show of patrotisim, our source said he was not sure.
“If they knew l doubt if they would have gone ahead to punish him ,” said the source.
NFF fined the player 5,000 dollars and a query as a follow-up to the two-match ban slammed on him by CAF for getting a red card in the game. NFF viewed Onazi’s action as a breach of the team’s code of ethics.