Between Ahmed Musa and Ejike Uzoenyi

Ahmed Musa and new comeback wonder sensation, Chrisantus Ejike Uzoenyi are obviously Nigeria’s hottest wingers at the moment and as the race to be among Nigeria’s 24 man squad at the World Cup intensifies coach Stephen Keshi’s options on the need for the team to re-position on wing play may be expendiry.
Over the years, the strength of Nigerian senior football team have always been focused primarily on wing play as the Green Eagles or the Super Eagles have featured several dazzling wingers like Segun “Mathematical” Odegbami, Humphrey Edobor, Adokie Amasieamaka, Finidi George, Pius Ikedia, Dominic Iorfa, just to mention a few.

Despite the challenges of discovery of new wingers which led to most foreign gaffers of the national team playing up a crowded midfield pattern, the Eagles have remained strong whenever they play their traditional 4-4-2 system which allows effective wing play for the strikers to get the job done at the other end.

In recent times, despite the several experiments made to wing plays in the national  team, the output of players featured has not been felt and the dominance of Ahmed “Air Nigeria” Musa to a great extent has been limited to the team’s output.

Until the recent Championship of African Nations (CHAN 2014), Ejike Uzoenyi has been a regular feature for the home based Eagles who played in the Africa Cup of Nations at South Africa 2013 where Nigeria won the Cup after a 19 year old wait. 
He has been largely overshadowed by Ahmed Musa primarily because of his foreign legion influence which our coaches have come to believe remains a yardstick for automatic selection to the National team.

Today, Keshi’s options once again has been expanded with the revelation of obviously Nigeria’s best player, Ejike Uzoenyi who at present remains the hottest toast in Africa today as the country brooks forward to a successful outing in Brazil.

The rising profile of Uzoenyi born on March 23, 1988 at Aba, present day Abia State remains a dream come true.

Standing at 1.68 (5ft 6"), Ejike Uzoenyi joined Enyimba Football Club between 2005 – 2008, Enugu Rangers 2008 – 2013, had a brief stint with Rennes in France and got a call up to the national team in 2012 where he has featured 16 times. He appeared in the FIFA World Cup qualifying matches for the Super Eagles.

The new wonder kid on the block has perfectly waited for his time to shoot in to global reckon from big clubs on the continent and possibly a transfer target to Europe in the summer.

At CHAN 2014, Ejike Uzoenyi scored thrice in two of the teams six games, netted three goals including a 59th minute of the eleventh hour equalizer in the pulsating clash against Morocco in the quarter finals.

He was three consecutive man of the match awards, supported four assists in the Super Eagles 13 goals at the Championship, was among Africa’s best eleven at the end of the championship, the most valuable player at the CHAN and possibly the next best home based footballer at the next CAF Awards at the end of the year.

Definitely, Ejike Uzoenyi will be on the flight to Sao Paulo even as Keshi has stated that he will pick four home based players for the mundial – a decision which has been widely criticized.

At the moment Ejike Uzoenyi’s success story at CHAN may run into a hitch as the usual bottlenecks by greedy club officials at Enugu Rangers may be foot dragging his release to the several clubsides in South Africa wishing  to grab him on loan till the end of the season.

Presently, the player has stayed back in South Africa and is presently in talks with several clubs including Sundowns and Orlando Pirates.
At first, the media had emphatically speculated that the dazzling and intelligent player had agreed to terms to join Super Sports United and the player recently stated that to enable his smooth transfer to the South African club of his choice, Uzoenyi has demanded he be set free with a top management staff supporting this move.

The fleet footed winger had through his lawyers written Rangers for his   release as a free player from the “Flying Antelopes” fold in the third week of January.
But pressures from some quarters did not make this achievable which has now forced the player to write a second letter to the management of the club for his release on the condition that Rangers keep twenty percent of his last season’s sign on fees and issue him with an International Transfer Certificate for him to proceed to Sundowns as a free agent. He has since returned to Nigeria last weekend.

“Uzoenyi joined Rangers from Enyimba in the 2009/2010 season in exchange for Bishop Onyeudo and has risen steadily to be the highest paid player of the Flying Antelopes”. 

At CHAN 2014, Uzoenyi showed why he remains Africa’s best for now as his skills combined with intelligence ensure he merited the honour he currently enjoys in Africa.

For Ahmed Musa, the sleek 5ft.7" winger of CSKA Moscow would usher a perfect combination in Nigeria’s attack with Ejike Uzoenyi. Ahmed Musa remains a consistent factor in the National team line up and the brewing competition between him an Uzoenyi remains very healthy for the growth of the team and the competition for shirts will offer Keshi the best options for a starting eleven of his best choice of players at the start of each game.

Ahmed Musa’s dazzling career dates back to the 2008 – 2010 season while he featured for, Juth FC 2008 – 2009, s coring four goals from 18 appearances, was the highest goal scorer on the Nigerian league with Kano Pillars while he was there scoring 18 goals.

At CSKA Moscow, so far he has featured 62 times scoring 17 goals, played in the under 20 national team scoring three goals, Olympic team with a goal and 35 appearances for the Super Eagles with five goals to his credit.
Ahmed Musa is rated among the 100 young football stars in the world as at 2011 and on March 8, 2011 won the AIT footballer of the year award (national).

The blistering forms of our strikers few months to the World Cup remains a welcome development and I believe that Keshi should pay more attention to the activities of our players on and off the field as I believe that the bulk of the players for the World Cup would be from the foreign legion.

It is believed that the much publicized matches against Greece in the United States of America on June 3, Mexico in March 3, USA on June 7 in Florida remains a great opportunity for Keshi to test the might of his players before naming his final team.

Every player wants to be at the World Cup, it is the zenith of their career and the flame of display their talents will be burning highly and as the opportunity of a lifetime beckons, I believe, Ejike Uzoenyi could be immediately effected and if possibly draw the attention of the Nigeria Football Federation to this uneasy, unnecessary bottlenecks of greed otherwise, we may just be losing a significant player ahead of the World Cup without club, lack of matches and a danger of limited options for the team.

Only the best players must feature for the national team as the World Cup is not an experimental platform.