José Peseiro: Former Super Eagles coach defends decision not to invite NPFL players

During his 20-month tenure as Nigeria's head coach, José Peseiro stood firm in his decision not to invite players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) to the national team.

Not a single NPFL player featured in a competitive game for Nigeria during the Portuguese coach's time in charge, which ended with the expiration of his contract with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in February.

Despite leading the Super Eagles to the grand finale of the Nations Cup for the first time in over a decade, Peseiro couldn't reach an agreement with the NFF to extend his role.

Reflecting on his time with the Super Eagles and coaching an African team for the first time in his career, Peseiro defended his approach claiming that the local players were not as good as the foreign based ones.

“There was pressure to pick players from the Nigeria Professional League. I get asked all the time about them, but I came at a time when the team just missed out on the World Cup, so I had to go for the best players. I watched a lot of games, and none of the players is as good as the ones playing abroad. You can’t call players for the sake of it,” he explained.