Abia warriors defender Adekunle Adeleke has revealed his aim in the Nigeria national team squad is to prove there are quality players in the Nigeria Professional Football League.
The defender is one of the three home-based players invited for the Super Eagles’ 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers this month.
The three-time African champions will take on the Republic of Benin on March 27 before slugging it out against Lesotho three days later in Lagos.
Adeleke has set himself a target of representing the home-based players well in the national team in order to open doors of opportunities for them.
“Definitely we are going to give a good account of ourselves and try to do our best to show that there are good and quality players in the league,” Adeleke told Brila FM.
The defender is optimistic of Nigeria’s victory against their West African neighbours and warned his side to be battle-ready for the encounter.
“No team is small and I believe we have the quality and good players to win Benin republic,” he continued.
Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has been reluctant to hand home-based players chances in the national team in the past.
The German tactician claimed his best payers are based abroad and also revealed the home-based stars are not patient before leaving for Europe.
“We cannot find all the time players in the local league who are better than the other ones,” Rohr said.
“The criterion for us, the first criteria is the quality of the players. Everybody knows, not only in Nigeria, that the best players are in Europe or somewhere else in professional leagues. That is the fact.
“I invited already more than 23 or 24 local players since I have been in charge of the Super Eagles but we invite them and then immediately they are going to Europe. It is wonderful for them but maybe not for us.”
Nigeria currently lead Group L table with eight points and victory over the Republic of Benin or Lesotho will seal their place at the Afcon tournament in Cameroon.
The Super Eagles finished third at the 2019 edition of the tournament behind winners Algeria and Senegal.
