The stunning revelation made by coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr about a player agent who tried to smuggle his player into the Super Eagles squad for the World Cup in Russia didn’t come as a surprise to Owngoalnigeria.com.
Our senior editor Osas Mahawi is well aware of the whole incident which started since June last year, shortly before the Super Eagles AFCON 2019 Qualifiers tie against South Africa which was followed by the back to back World Cup 2018 Qualifiers against Cameroon.
The agent contacted Owngoalnigeria.com through me with an offer to help promote a Qatar based player. According to him six different media houses have been selected for the job.
Same day the publisher turned down the offer with a stern warning that we are not a PR agency, the said player had his story on the official website of the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) . He was given a full page to talk on the Super Eagles engagement where he also spoke on his desire to return back to the team and specifically on what he can offer.
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Till date he remains the only player outside of the Super Eagles who have been interviewed on the official site of the NFF. That alone says it all. Furthermore I later gathered that it was a full blown racket that even involved some back room staff of the Super Eagles and also people working for the NFF.
The incident spoken about by Rohr happened when Rohr arrived Nigeria ahead of the release of his provisional list for the World Cup. The agent got to know the arrival date of the coach through a backroom staff of the team and staged the crowd that welcomed Rohr at the airport.
He was warned against making such moves by the person who contacted Owngoalnigeria.com on his behalf but he was so sure that the move will pay off. He didn’t offer Rohr money but he used the staged managed event at the airport to get close to Rohr before proposing his player.
Rohr didn’t pick the player in his squad and I guess he later became aware of the antics of the agent and broke off all communication with him. Anyway his case is just one of so many Owngoalnigeria.com will reveal in the coming days.
