Nigeria Football Federation’s technical director Augustine Eguavoen has denied any form of interference in the final selection of Eric Chelle’s 23-man squad to face Rwanda and Zimbabwe in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers Footynaija.com reports.
Super Eagles head coach Chelle left many eyebrows raised after leaving in-form Rangers center-forward Cyriel Dessers out of his final selection despite initially including the 30-year-old in his 39-man provisional squad list.
Dessers’ exclusion understandably piques the curiosity of many regarding the metrics Chelle used for his selection. With 22 goals for Rangers this term, the six-time capped Super Eagles forward is Nigeria’s second highest scoring striker in Europe behind Victor Osimhen.
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Despite his impressive numbers, Dessers has been overlooked in favour of players like Victor Boniface, Tolu Arokodare and Umar Sadiq, to the surprise of many fans and football analysts.
Cyriel Dessers needs a ‘godfather’ as it seems his form alone can’t get him a fair shot with the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
— Tayo Salaam (@TY_Slajam) March 11, 2025
22 goals n counting yet gets dropped for Umar Sadiq, Victor Boniface and Tolu Arokodare… no disrespect to these guys but he’s in far better form. pic.twitter.com/l4fyPtMOoS
With questions surrounding the criteria for Chelle’s final selection mounting, Eguavoen, who coached the Super Eagles on an interim basis, has come out to offer some sort of clarification.
“I want Nigerians to get clarity on something,” he said in quotes reported by Rangers Review.
“A senior national team manager anywhere in the world has the final say on who he wants on his list.
“We can interact, we cannot interfere. If he says no, it’s no.
“So I will say Eric Chelle took his time to prepare this list and he has the final say.
“He has a pool of about 45 to 50 Nigerian players abroad. So, it’s his discretion, and he has been monitoring these players on the provisional list.
“He knows his players – it’s his choice to make. So, there was no interference.”
