The omission of Cyriel Dessers from the Super Eagles list of players for the upcoming world cup qualifiers games against Rwanda and Zimbabwe respectively, has dominated discussions from when the final 23 man list was made public by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Dessers who has 22 goals this season for Scottish side Rangers was not picked by head coach Eric Chelle among the four strikers in Victor Osimhen, Victor Boniface, Tolu Arokodare and Sadiq Umar to lead the team’s attack.
While all of the players in the list boast of double digits goals, Sadiq has five goals this season and all came following his loan move to Valencia from Real Sociedad in the January transfer window.
His choice over Dessers has been the most debated but sources close to the coach revealed that Sadiq edged him, largely due to the competitive nature of the league he is playing in at the moment.
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Sadiq plays in the Spanish LaLiga which is the rates as the strongest league in the world, unlike Dessers who plays in Scotland that is not in the top 20 rated leagues in the world.
Chelle was said to have considered picking Dessers ahead of Arokodare but had a change of mind as he prefers a young player to be the backup option to his preferred trio instead of a 30 year old.
However if all goes according to plan, Dessers who Chelle watched when he was at the helm as coach of Mali in a friendly game which his team won 2-0 will likely get a chance in the June friendly game.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
