Akpoborie tips Awoniyi, others for Eagles

Taiwo Awoniyi

Former Super Eagles forward, Jonathan Akpoborie, has said only two or three of the present Flying Eagles players will make it to the senior national team.

The Nigeria U-20 national team are presently participating in the African Youth Championship in Senegal where they defeated Senegal and Congo 3-1 and 4-1 respectively.

There has been calls from various quarters that the players, who are mainly from the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup winning team, be kept together to grow and graduate into full blown national team players.

But Akpoborie, who played at the U-17 and U-20 levels in 1985 and 1987, said the call for the graduation of all the players may fail.

“The team we have presently at the U-20 level is a good one but with due respect to everybody in that team, I think only one or two of them will finally make it to the Super Eagles,” he said.

“This is because what goes on around each player is quite different from the others. What we are talking about here is a long term issue and a lot of factors come to play.

“Their development will not be the same and as such some will definitely drop by the way side.

“The players may not be on the same form for quite long and injuries may set in before anybody knows. The idea of keeping them together is good but as it’s evident not all of them in the U-17 level are there now in the U-20. That is how it will be as they progress in the game.”

Akpoborie, however, added that Taiwo Awoniyi, who currently has three goals at the AYC, is one of the few who can make the Eagles at the end of the team’s transition.

He said, “Awoniyi is a player that I have been observing even before the AYC. He is a player that can make the Eagles finally if the right development is given to him.

“He is a striker with a predator instinct and has eyes for goal. He can grow into one of the best strikers Nigeria has ever produced but as I said, that is if the right things are in place for him.

“This development is not the one with the national team. It is the one that comes with playing in the right club and the right people.

“The people who are handling his career should help him make a good decision about a club that has good youth policies and that will be good for him.