Super Eagles captain Joseph Yobo made the national team’s final list released by head coach, Stephen Keshi, last week for the FIFA World Cup which begins Thursday in Brazil. However, not everyone is happy about that development, and his performances at the recent friendly matches have not helped his case, especially the Nigeria-USA match last Saturday. Fans took to Twitter to voice their displeasure.
It has also emerged that “real politics and intrigues” played a major role before Joseph Yobo, who currently plays defense for Fenerbahce of Turkey, could make the final list.
According to Tribune's Sports pages;
Yobo’s name was conspicously missing in the list released on Monday morning, adding that by evening when the final list was about to be submitted to FIFA, the player’s name had found its way back into the list.
The source who pleaded not to be mentioned told Tribunesport by phone from America that the technical crew, headed by Keshi was prevailed upon by top officials in Nigeria football circles, who insisted that Yobo must make the list having been serving the country since 2001.
According to the source, the officials had argued that Keshi too was in a situation similar to Yobo’s 20 years ago when Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations in Tunisia, months before the Super Eagles made their maiden World Cup appearance in USA. The ‘Big Boss’ also attended the Mundial that same year with the Eagles.
Tribunesport recalls that Keshi was not wholly fit for the 1994 Nations Cup, where he made a cameo appearance on Nigeria’s way to winning the trophy.
“He was reminded of this and was told that he should realise that Yobo is the longest serving national team player, and that the only thing left for him was the 2014 World Cup and his desire to take his number of international matches to 100. Politics played a major role in his (Yobo’s) inclusion in the team because he did not make the squad initially, but by evening, when high-level politicking had taken place, his name had been included,” the source said.
It was also disclosed to Tribunesport that some ‘senior’ players in the team also lobbied for the inclusion of their captain. The source, however refused to mention the names of those ‘senior’ players to Tribunesport.
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