A former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, has blamed the lack of consistency and commitment among players and management of the national team for the reason why only two players can boast of 100 caps for the national team.
Vincent Enyeama and Joseph Yobo are the two players that have attained this feat for the Super Eagles.
Enyeama and Yobo are tied on 101 Caps and both won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa after beating Burkina Faso 1-0 in the final.
In an interview with ESPN on Tuesday, the former Enyimba and Lille goalkeeper stated that players such as Austin Okocha, Peter Rufai, Nwankwo Kanu, Mikel Obi and others should have surpassed the record.
He noted the constant changing of coaches and lack of continuity, consistency in management and that of commitment on the part of the players as the reason.
“One hundred caps is nothing. I think it is a shame that we have only two players that have played for Nigeria up to 100 times,” he said.
“It is a big shame because with the quality we have in Nigeria, we should have more. That shows that there is a lack of continuity, consistency, commitment on the part of the players and management.
“Look at other top football countries; you will find that many of their players, active and retired, have more than 100 caps.
“But we have players in Nigeria playing 10 to 15 years and still don’t get up to 100 caps because these coaches come in and change players all the time.
“Players like Jay Jay (Okocha), Peter Rufai, Kanu deserve to have more than 100 caps. It is sad that Mikel could not get up to 100 because he was very close to it. Going forward, we need to do better. We need more players to get there.”
Meanwhile, current captain of the team, Ahmed Musa, is on the verge of reaching 100 caps. He will do so if he appears in the team’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Central African Republic in October.
Nigeria has gone seven decades in international football, and has participated in six FIFA World Cup events, the first being in 1994 where they reached the second round.
