Peseiro: Foreign-born players must show motivation to play for Eagles before they can be invited

January 23, 2023 11:42 am

Nigeria appoints Portugal's Peseiro as new head coach

Nigeria appoints Portugal's Jose Peseiro as new head coach (Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra)

Jose Peseiro, Super Eagles head coach, says foreign-born Nigerian players must show “maximum motivation” to play for the country before they can be invited to the national team.

Speaking with Mirror UK on Sunday, Peseiro said the players’ quality is secondary to their willingness to represent Nigeria.

Across Europe, a litany of exciting talents of Nigerian descent is emerging. However, only a few of them have shown interest to switch allegiance from their country of birth to Nigeria.

The English group of Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise, Folarin Balogun, Carney Chukwuemeka, and Tosin Adarabioyo are eligible to represent both England and the Eagles. However, they all have been reluctant to commit to Nigeria.

Addressing the situation, Peseiro said while the assortment of talents is attractive, he would only work with players with a passion to play for the three times African champions.

“You receive some information or when you watch many players on TV or live, you can discover more players, more players, more players,” the Eagles head coach said.

“I was in some matches when I was in England to see some players, then at the same time, we discover, ‘well that player can play for us, also’, normally young players.

“There are many good players with quality, capacity and good training. For us, if we want to win the next African Cup of Nations (AFCON), I am happy because I have many players with the quality to create a good national team.

“But it’s not easy to choose the right players. We try to see them in the match, and after that, I try to call them for our practice and our friendly games because we want to create a small group with quality for developing in training and practice to implement our ideas to win the next AFCON.

“But there are a lot of players, and they need to show the maximum demand and motivation to play for Nigeria. Quality, of course, but demand and motivation to play for us.”

Peseiro took charge of the Eagles in May 2022 and promised to win Nigeria the next AFCON.