Ex-Super Eagles striker Emmanuel Emenike who is on
loan at West Ham has blasted the Nigeria Football Federation on its
decision to organize a Super Eagles friendly the same day retired Super
Eagles player will be celebrating his football career with a testimonial
match in Port Harcourt.
Nigeria will play a friendly against Mali in France on May 27,
the same day the Yobo testimonial will be played. Emenike said the
NFF's decision was disrespectful to the former Eagles skipper and
Everton defender, who had served the country with total dedication
during his playing days.
"If we are still
on the same page of re-branding football, we should have the common
sense of celebrating our heroes so that the younger ones in the team
will live by example,” Emenike told AfricanFootball
"Yobo
deserves the honour and everybody has to turn up to celebrate him, but
it’s unfortunate that it’s the NFF who are now looking like the obstacle
to this testimonial. The Super Eagles players are the ones who want to
play the Yobo match, tell me how will that be possible if they are in
for another national assignment on that same day.
“We should change our mentality of ‘use and dump’ approach in order to reach greater heights of football in the world.
“Yobo
was one of the best in Africa during his playing days, he's a known
name all over the world and he should be celebrated in a bigger way. The
younger ones are watching, let's change things."
He
continued: "I understand that the Joseph Yobo match will be played this
same day Super Eagles have a match against Mali or whoever, is that the
way it’s being done in other countries?
"I
think some people are just unserious about our football. This is a top
match and Yobo has written a letter to the NFF before now, so why are
they playing this international match also?
“We
should also understand that we don't respect our past heroes, we don't
appreciate the past, we only want people to come and die and forget
about their life.
"Without apology, I have
decided not to say anything against the federation irrespective of their
antics, but this is unacceptable, I hate injustice and we should learn
to celebrate our past heroes in order to encourage the younger players
in the team.”
"I think it will be better for
them to do something about it and cover their mess because of other
foreign players coming for the match," he further told AfricanFootball.
"Even
when I was in the team, I got angry at times when you see the way
things were going wrong and you begin to question yourself on a lot of
things and this is just one of those things."
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