The Nigeria Football Federation says it is ready to work with Vincent Enyeama and John Mikel Obi after weeks of the two former Super Eagles captains expressing interest to be close to the team.
Enyeama and Mikel were members of the 2013 Nigeria AFCON winning team. Although they never got an official send-off from the NFF when they quit the team in 2015 and 2019 respectively, both players had contrasting exits from the national team.
While Mikel played at the 2019 AFCON before calling time on his international career, Enyeama left the Super Eagles under controversial circumstances in 2015, after falling out with then-coach Sunday Oliseh.
Enyeama was stripped of the team's captaincy before he was thrown out of the team camp by security guards in Belgium, during a FIFA International break while the team was preparing for a friendly match.
He was accused of disrespecting the coach and subsequently didn't show up for the AFCON qualifier against Tanzania.
Having gone into forced international football retirement before finally retiring from football, the ex-goalkeeper revealed he stayed away from the Super Eagles activities for several years until now because he felt 'used' and hurt by the incident.
He got Nigerians puzzled when he dropped a comment under the Super Eagles' official Instagram handle as they prepared for AFCON camping saying, "Let's goooo. See you in camp. It's time for business."
Mikel Obi, on the other hand, continues to express interest in working with the national team in his recent interviews.
Reacting to these in an exclusive interview with Nigeria Info, the General Secretary of the NFF, Dr. Sanusi Muhammed said the federation has “never closed the door on any ex-international.”
"Well, I don't know but for issues like this, it's better you ask the director of technical. The only thing I can tell you is that you've seen it,” he said.
“We have never closed the door on any ex-international. You have been seeing Joseph Yobo, Amokachi; so many of them.
“This is a football federation, that is interested in bringing people who have value to add so that collectively we can do it. We have always been saying we can't do it alone.
“We need collaboration and cooperation of everybody and whoever has something to add to what we are doing is welcome."
Responding to Enyeama's claim of feeling 'used' by the NFF, Dr. Sanusi said he would rather have a face-to-face talk with him rather than a media buzz.
"You're telling me something you've heard, which I've not heard. So, it is better you talk to the Director Technical (Austin Eguavon) who is in a better position to answer this.
"Talk to the Director Technical. I don't talk about issues like that. I don't discuss players or people I've worked with on the pages of newspapers. I don't do that.
“It's not in my character, I don't do that. So, if there is anything between me and people I worked with, we trash it out, not to discuss it on the pages of a newspaper."
The Nigerian national team is currently preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations, which it hopes to win for a fourth time. Nigeria is in Group A alongside the host Cote D'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, and Guinea Bissau.
