Adelakun explains why Rohr ignores NPFL players

Super Eagles Chief Scout, Tunde Adelakun, has revealed that the Nigeria Professional Football League players (NPFL) are not considered when the senior national team coaches invite players to camp because there is no means to assess their performance regularly online.

He said as one of the Super Eagles assistant coaches, it was difficult for him to monitor players in Nigerian league from his base in the United Kingdom because the games do not have visuals online that his team could critically study before recommending players to Rohr.

He noted that his job, which also includes sourcing for credible talented footballers of Nigerian heritage around the world, has yielded fruits in the past four years he has been working with Rohr.

He disclosed that he has 400 players on his data that are ready to play for the Super Eagles in the nearest future and assured Nigerians that he would always give his best to help develop Nigerian football at all levels.

“Scouting for players overseas is easy for me because there is a special software device I use to track Nigerian foreign-based players’ performance online.

“Any Nigerian player that is doing fine in Europe, if I get his contact and data, I use the device to watch his clips and study his performance. After this process, if I am satisfied, I will recommend to Rohr and he will also assess the player before taking the step to approach the player in his base.

“I have tapes and recordings of so many Nigerian players doing well abroad. But the NPFL is a different mater. The league matches are not online, so it is not easy to use the software to watch a particular player’s performance.

“It is not that there are no good players in the Nigerian domestic league, but there needs to be a process to constantly monitor a player’s performance in his club,” he said.

Adelakun revealed that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has started a process that would help home-based players to play for the national team, adding, “I have started talking to LMC chairman, Shehu Dikko to see how we can fashion out means to ensure the best NPFL players get to compete for shirts with their foreign-based counterparts in the senior national team if eventually, Rohr gets his contract back.

“Some of the players I have discovered over the years include Joe Aribo, Tyronne Ebuehi and others. I  am ready to help raise Nigeria football to the highest level if given more opportunity.”