Former Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama has blamed the inability of some Super Eagles players to reached 100 caps in the senior national team as a result of constant changes of coaches, lack of continuity, consistency, and commitment on the part of the players and management.
In the seven decades history of international football, only two players have a century of caps for the senior national team – Enyeama and Joseph Yobo.
Both players are tied on 101 Caps for the Super Eagles and won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa after beating Burkina Faso 1-0 in the final.
In an interview with ESPN, the former Enyimba goalkeeper stated that players such as Austin Okocha, Peter Rufai, Nwankwo Kanu, Mikel Obi and others should have surpassed the record if there was stability of coaches in the Super Eagles.
“One hundred caps is nothing. I think it is a shame that we have only two players that have played for Nigeria up to 100 times.
“It is a big shame because with the quality we have in Nigeria, we should have more. That shows that there is a lack of continuity, consistency, commitment on the part of the players and management.
“Look at other top football countries; you will find that many of their players, active and retired, have more than 100 caps.
“But we have players in Nigeria playing 10 to 15 years and still don’t get up to 100 caps because these coaches come in and change players all the time.
“Players like Jay Jay (Okocha), Peter Rufai, Kanu deserve to have more than 100 caps. It is sad that Mikel could not get up to 100 because he was very close to it. Going forward, we need to do better. We need more players to get there.”
