Has Rohr Finally Found Nigeria's Best Strikers To Lead The Super Eagles To The 2022 FIFA World CUP?
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The Super Eagles of Nigeria has always been known to be an attacking team, and in 1994 Nigeria had legendary forwards that could shake the defense of any team in the world, the team had aggressive forwards like Daniel Amokachi, Emmanuel Amuneke, Jonathan Akpoborie, and the iconic Rashidi Yekini who scored Nigeria's first-ever goal at a FIFA World Cup, at that time Nigeria was ranked the 5th best team in the world by FIFA.
Daniel Amokachi aka "The Bull"
Emmanuel Amuneke
Jonathan Apkoborie
Rashidi Yekini
Late Stephen Keshi
When Nigeria was led by Late coach Stephen Keshi to win the African Cup of Nations in 2013, the team had a new set of strikers that could hold their own anywhere in the world, the team had players like Victor Moses, Ikechukwu Uche, Ahmed Musa, Brown Ideye, Osaze Odemwingie, and Emmanuel Emenike, these players had their own style and were effective but were arguably not as swift as their predecessors.
Emmanuel Emenike
Osaze Odemwingie
Ikechukwu Uche
By 2015, late coach Stephen Keshi was relieved as the coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria because he failed to qualify Nigeria for the 2015 AFCON tournament, the NFF went ahead to employ, Amodu Shuaibu as his replacement but he did not last long as the team's head coach, then Sunday Oliseh was appointed but his tenure was short-lived, and Salisu Yusuf was the last Nigerian coach to be appointed but his tenure was also short-lived, each of them was sacked because they could not live up to the standard that was expected of them.
Sunday Oliseh
So the NFF declared that they had to look for a world-class foreign coach that would take the team to the next level. In August 2016, the Nigerian Football Federation announced the appointment of German tactician, Gernot Rohr as the coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Upon his appointment, he said that he had been observing the Nigerian Professional Football League and there was no player in the league that was technically sound to play for his Super Eagles team, so he began scouting Nigerians abroad. He brought in players like William Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun, Joe Aribo, Ola Aina, Tyronne Ebuehi, and Carl Ikeme amongst others. Rohr went on to build his team around these foreign-based players that were led by Mikel Obi, the coach tried to make the squad an attacking team mixing both youth and experience the squad's attack consisted of players like, Odion Ighalo, Kelechi Iheanacho, Victor Moses, Simy Nwankwo, and Alex Iwobi, Victor Osimhen, Ahmed Musa.
Ahmed Musa
Odion Ighalo
Coach Gernot Rohr successfully qualified Super Eagles of Nigeria for both the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2019 AFCON Tourney, the Super Eagles were not able to go past the group stage after a controversial loss to Argentina in the final group game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, then Rohr went on to lead the Super Eagles of Nigeria to win the bronze medal at the 2019 CAF AFCON Tournament.
Simeon Nwankwo
Kelechi Iheanacho
After the 2019 AFCON Tourney, Odion Ighalo who ended the qualifiers and the tournament as the highest goal-scorer felt it was time to call it quits, so he retired from the national team, so it was time for a new age of Nigerian strikers, Coach Gernot Rohr decided it was time to rebuild his attack so he invited players like, Paul Onuachu who is the highest goal scorer in the Belgian League, Samuel Chukwueze who recently helped Villareal to a Europa Cup victory, Cyriel Dessers who is also making waves in Belgium for Genk, Simy Nwankwo who just finished as the 5th best highest goal-scorer in the Italian Serie A, and Victor Osimhen who was Lille's highest goal scorer and the most expensive African player.
Paul Onuachu
Victor Osimhen
Coach Rohr also retained players like Kelechi Iheanacho, Ahmed Musa, Moses Simon, and Alex Iwobi for their wealth of experience, the German tactician was able to use these players to qualify Nigeria for the 2021 AFCON Tourney, but do you think these set of strikers have what it takes to win the 2021 AFCON Tournament and also qualify Nigeria for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar? Can Rohr and his present Super Eagles of Nigeria squad surpass the achievements of the USA 94 squad and shot the Super Eagles of Nigeria right back into the spotlight where they belong?