The German tactician made the unpopular decision of leaving out one of the world’s finest strikers at the moment, but the former international believes the Genk star deserves better
Gernot Rohr on Tuesday released the names of the 24 players he plans to unleash on the Benin Republic and Lesotho later this month and controversially omitted Paul Onuachu.
Onuachu is Nigeria’s most prolific forward in Europe at the moment.
His 26 goals in all competitions for Genk is more than what Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, clubless Ahmed Musa, Villarreal, Samuel Chukwueze, Bordeaux’s Samuel Kalu, and Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho – all of whom were invited – have managed together this term.
In fact, in world football, only Bayern Munich’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski has found the back of the net more times than Onuachu.
By extension, the former Midtjylland man has been better than Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, PSG’s Kylian Mbappe, Juventus Cristiano Ronaldo, and AC Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
But Rohr is convinced that the 26-year-old is not good enough to merit a national team call-up.
Ex-international Etim Esin, however, believes that the Genk star deserves to make the 24-man list, with the team set up to bring the best out of his abilities.
“I think he should be given a chance to perform he is on form scoring goals, and he has that (Rashidi) Yekini structure,” Esin told Complete Sports.
“I think he struggles in the Eagles because if you look at it, does he has the players who can feed him the way they feed him in his club?
“So we need those players who can understand him and release the ball to him so that he can deliver, players who can cross the ball like Finidi, Amuneke because in those days flank was our biggest weapon.”
Onuachu’s stats with the Super Eagles do not help his cause. The Nigerian forward has only found the back of the net once for the 2019 Afcon bronze medalists.
