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Super Eagles’ veteran skipper Joseph Phillip Yobo is older than he claims and definitely does not deserve a place in Nigeria’s senior national football team, one of the country’s best known analysts of the game has said.
Yobo, who puts his age at 33, was frozen out of the Eagles due to declining productivity immediately after Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations a year ago but was recalled this week by Head Coach Stephen Keshi.
“I don’t think Keshi knows what he is talking about because Yobo should be between 38 and 40 years now. If he really wants a team for the future, he should look at the direction of Enyimba FC back four and some good players in our leagues,” Godwin Dudu-Orumen said.
Defending his position, Dudu-Orumen told News Express this morning: “Not everyone is taken by the drum beat to bring Yobo back. I am certain it is the result of pressure from certain quarters NFF Board Members inclusive, sponsored stories in the media but certainly not on account of just two EPL matches. Yobo played U-20 in 1999 and we all know how we much age cheating goes on here. Tell me my estimation of his age is wrong. The level of dishonesty in our football should be reducing not increasing please.
“Let’s stop playing the ostrich so we don’t for scarlet sentiments parade a team of geriatrics and spent players at the world cup then expect Mikel, Ogenyi, Enyeama and Emenike to bail us out. And, of course, call on Nigerians to fast and pray for the Eagles as if prayers only can make up for deliberate and self-inflicted inadequacies.”
Yobo, who plays as a centre back for English Premiership strugglers Norwich City on loan from Fenerbahçe of Turkey, has earned 95 caps, making him the most capped Nigerian player ever.
