Gernot Rohr says he regrets his failure to give the duo of Taiwo Awoniyi and Emmanuel Dennis regular playing time while in charge of the Super Eagles.
Rohr was fired as the Super Eagles coach last Sunday by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over what the football house attributed to the retrogression of the Eagles under his charge.
Rohr was accused of giving regular playing time to certain players while snubbing in-form players like Awoniyi and Dennis.
While Awoniyi was handed a maiden call-up to the national team for the World Cup qualifiers against the Central African Republic in October only because Lorient striker Terem Moffi suffered an injury in his last game before he was due to report for international duty, Dennis, Nigeria’s most in-form player in the top five European Leagues, has been in the international wilderness for more than a year, with his last appearance for the Super Eagles coming against Sierra Leone in an African Cup of Nations qualifier in November 2020.
Rohr always maintained that he could not name more than three centre forwards on his roster, with Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Iheanacho and Paul Onuachu often getting the nod from the Franco-German.
“We have tried so many players. Awoniyi has been invited; he played 45 minutes against the Central African Republic,” Rohr told ESPN.
“He was unlucky, but he would have been invited again. Dennis has been invited also. He came in twice against Sierra Leone.
“And all the other ones have been invited or would have been invited. We have so many strikers that you cannot invite six centre-forwards.”
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“I know that all Nigerians are passionate about football, and everybody has his own favourite for this. And I understand that everybody wants to see their favourite players.
“What is true is that perhaps I didn’t follow the suggestions or the advice of the officials to invite certain players.
“That is possible because I wanted to do the choice with my technical staff and not with people from outside the team,” he added.
Rohr was in charge of the Super Eagles for five years, four months and 10 days, becoming the longest servicing Super Eagles coach.
