Joel Obi: The Great Absentee

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Joel Obi: The Great Absentee

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Joel Obi: The Great Absentee

FC Parma's Joel Obi the forgotten Super Eagle

Posted: 25 January 2014 Time: 10:26 am

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During 2011, one Super Eagle played in all eleven of the national side’s fixtures. Three things make this statistic particularly remarkable.

First of all, this player didn’t just feature in 100 percent of Nigeria’s games, they also started every single one. To put that into context, during 2013 no single player featured in every one of the Super Eagles’ games, let alone started 100 percent of our fixtures.

Secondly, the player that had such a fantastic, consistent record in 2011 was not some established veteran or an un-droppable star man.



It was not a John Mikel Obi or a Vincent Enyeama, no Joseph Yobo or Efe Ambrose. It was a player who had only just broken into the side and indeed, had only made their debut earlier that same year.

Finally, the stat that makes this such a unique, such a bizarre situation, is that only two years later, during the Super Eagles’ glory year, during 2013, the player in question didn’t play a single minute for the national side.

Not one kick of a ball, not one fleeting substitute appearance, not one call-up, not one, single reassuring mention in dispatches.

In fact, in the fixtures since this man last started a Nigeria game, the following players have all been and gone in the squad…Ejike Uzoenyi, Uche Kalu, Papa Idris, Juwon Oshaniwa (remember him?), Henry Uche…the list goes on.

Joel Obi has become, quite firmly, one of the forgotten men of Nigerian football.

When the tale is told of Nigeria’s golden 12 months, the name of Joel Obi will be nowhere to be seen, when his young children, and grandchildren after them, demand of the Lagos-born midfielder “Where were you when the Super Eagles lifted continental gold?” “Where were you when Stephen Keshi united a nation and forged a team of champions from a young collection of disparate, diverse stars?”



Obi will merely be able to sit back, sigh the sigh of a thousand regrets, and utter bleakly “I wasn’t there…I wasn’t invited.”

There are two reasons why the situation, and Obi’s absence from the central narrative of glory, is so surprising; two main reasons why historians will scratch their heads as they recall and reconsider the Golden Laurel year and attempt to find the youngster’s names among the lists of those honoured.

First of all, he has the profile of the kind of player that has prospered under Keshi.

Having begun his international career in 2011, Obi is largely untarnished by the failings of Nigeria squads of the past. He wasn’t present for the debacle of 2010 or the failure to achieve World Cup qualification back in 2006.

Sure, he has experienced one or two underwhelming results during the ill-fated 2012 Afcon programme, but he also played over an hour in Nigeria’s unforgettable 4-1 victory over Argentina in June 2011.

As Keshi culled the big egos and the overachievers from his squad, it is as though Obi was late for the meeting and found himself strung out with the rejects, rather than being welcomed warmly into the community of the future. As the front door slowly swung shut, Obi found himself outside in the street with Taye Taiwo, not warming himself before a log fire with Moses, Mikel and the others.

He is also young. He was only 21 when Nigeria won the Cup of Nations and would have fitted in seamlessly in a squad crammed with his contemporaries.



Similarly, while Keshi retains faith in the players who ply their trade in Nigeria’s domestic league, he is clearly impressed by youngsters who can compete at some of Europe’s big clubs and in continental competition. Many of our contingent based in Russia and Turkey have experienced either the Champions League or the Europa League.

The likes of Mikel and Moses are established Premier League performers, while Ogenyi Onazi and Nwankwo Obiorah have both played in the Italian top flight.

Nosa Igiebor represented La Liga, creating an environment into which Obi may well have thrived.

Another key reason why Joel Obi’s absence seems strange is because of the potential impact he could make in a problem area in the Nigeria midfield.

I have often explained my ‘Third Man’ dilemma on these pages, and indeed, with the World Cup fast approaching, no Super Eagle (with the potential exception of Ramon Azeez) has made a convincing case to join Mikel and Onazi in the heart of that midfield.

Joel Obi, when on song, would surely end the debate. He has the energy and the dynamism, as well as the creative vision, the passing ability and the offensive nous to act as the most-advanced component of a potential three man midfield. His talents, I believe, would be a perfect complement to the established pairing.

Naturally, the major caveat to this exchange so far, the primary footnote the historians of tomorrow will stumble across as they attempt to understand why one of the nation’s brightest prospects wasn’t present in South Africa, is injuries.

In this respect, Joel Obi has had some grave misfortune.



His loan move to Parma in the summer was intended to give him the playing time to return to fitness, rediscover some form and begin to develop the footballing intelligence required to make the most of his myriad of impressive raw materials.

It simply hasn’t happened and the 22 year old has, once again, endured time on the sidelines. So far this season he has started one game and made three further substitute appearances. It simply isn’t enough to prompt talk of the World Cup.

Considering his recent troubles, it is perverse that some Nigerians, even those commenting on this website, continue to exalt Joel Obi as some kind of quick fix or instant saviour.

Some have argued that he is a far-superior player to Ghana’s Andre Ayew.

That’s not something I could agree with at the moment. Potentially? Yes. But right now? Ayew, with over 100 appearances for Marseille and almost 50 for Ghana, a former BBC African footballer of the year, or Obi, with 38 appearances for Internazionale and 12 for Nigeria? I know who I’d rather have as the key influence in my midfield.

We all hope that Joel Obi comes good. He is fast, good on the ball, has a measured touch, is an aggressive presence and can carry the ball through the heart of a midfield.

He can be a key man for the Super Eagles, but don’t expect to see him in Brazil, and don’t believe that potential will burn as brightly forever.

Follow Ed Dove on Twitter @EddyDove

Article by: Ed Dove

http://www.kickoffnigeria.com/news/4087 ... per-eagle-
Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.” Genesis 42:21

“A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other, and we then know how to meet him” (Aesop, 620–564 BC).

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