A top-notch lawyer in Abuja, Barrister Niyi Ayoola-Daniels has described the decision of Super Eagles handler, Augustine Eguavoen, to invite Akinkunmi Amoo as one of the midfielders to the national team ahead of the 2022 World Cup playoffs against Ghana as a very brilliant and visionary decision.
During a chat with the media in Abuja, the popular lawyer and a football talent sponsor who once organised Abuja Youth Soccer Talent Hunt and also co-ordinates Annual Judges Workshops disclosed that “ Eguavoen is a brilliant coach with great vision who is trying to solve the problem of the absence of an effective and creative midfielder/ playmaker in the Super Eagles attacking formation which became obvious at the last AFCON in Cameroon. Even though l would have also loved to see Ebere Eze of Crystal Palace in the Super Eagles, ( but you can’t force a horse to drink water even if you managed to lead it to the stream) ,and that’s why l shower praises on Eguavoen for inviting Akinkunmi Amoo as a midfielder and the young man is also very excited to play for the Super Eagles.
“Amoo, the little Messi “ is an incredibly gifted left foot player who can play as a combative midfielder cum playmaker behind the strikers (Osimhen, Ighalo, Dennis or Umar). I have no doubt whatsoever that Amoo’s very fast dribbling and passing abilities with the ball will make him a most effective and creative midfielder cum playmaker for the Super Eagles. Let me remind Nigerians that Lionel Messi as young teenager started then as a winger for Barcelona , then later switched under Coach Pep Guardiola to play number 10 as playmaker behind the strikers ( Suarez & Neymar). The only advise l will offer Eguavoen is that he should make his players especially the youngest of them all, Amoo to dig deeper into his technical abilities by adding free-kick taking skills to his game. We all remember that Messi wasn’t much of a set-piece specialist in his early years but he later transformed himself into one of the best set-pieces takers in the world.
“The Minister of Sports, Mr Sunday Dare, and NFF President should also be commended for giving coach Eguavoen a free hand in the selection of invited players. This is the way to go . I see Nigeria defeating Ghana home and away” he concluded.
