Not a present! Chelle tells NPFL players ahead of Unity Cup

Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has told players from the Nigeria Premier Football League that they must earn their places in the national team.

The Franco-Malian tactician stressed that the invitation to the Super Eagles is not a gift, but rather players receive invitations based on their performance.

Eric Chelle made his thoughts known ahead of the Unity Cup opener against Zimbabwe tomorrow. He added that the competition is meant to test the readiness and commitment of the players to feature in the national team.

Chelle also added that players who impressed during the competition are likely to to be retained while others who didn’t make the mark will be dropped.

“Of course, this is a test. This is not a present. I didn’t give them a present,” Chelle warned. “This is a bad present, because they come and play, if they are good, they stay, if they are bad?”

“This is not a question of Eric is nice, he gives some chance to the player. They deserve to be here because they play well during one year,” he noted.

“Now they are here, this is not the end, because this is the beginning. It is very difficult to enter the national team.”

Eric Chelle spoke on the competitiveness in the Super Eagles stressing that the players ambitious to displace the regulars must work twice as hard.

“If you see all the positions, you want to play in centre back you have Calvin Bassey, Semi Ajayi, Benjamin Fredrick, Igor Ogbu, Fernandez,” Chelle said.

“When you come this is not a present, you have to give everything, the intensity and aggression and if you deserve to play in the AFCON I have no problem with that,” he added.

“You want to play fullbacks, you have Ola Aina, Bruno Onyeamachi, Zaidu Sanusi, and Osayi-Samuel. You want to play in the midfield, you have the magician Alex Iwobi, the reality you have to be better than all of these guys to enter that team.”

“You want to play as a striker, you have Victor Osimhen the best striker in the world.”

Nigeria will take on Zimbabwe in their first match as they aim to secure a positive start to the competition.

A victory for the defending champions would book their place in the final, where they would face either Jamaica or India.