Not an Owngoal source

[Sunset]

After the flash-in-the-pan bunch of NPFL players from the Keshi era that had us all excited for the future for nothing ((Mba, Egwuekwe, Oboabona, Odunlami, Uzoenyi etc) there really haven't been any players that have established themselves anywhere near the levels of Chukwueze, Collins, Ndidi, Ejuke, Nacho and of course Osimhen.

Chikatara was a big hope but seems to have gone totally quiet.
There's Ozonwafor who is just starting out.
Maybe another two or three but nobody else readily comes to mind.

Anyone that can't acknowledge the obvious problem is in denial.
We'd all love for the NPFL to be the backbone of the SE but it just aint happening right now and will take a long time for things to change.

Let's talk true.
Nigerians don't have that kind of patience.
They'll sack one coach after another for failing to deliver, regardless of the coach's best efforts.

Back to square 1 and our 20/20 'vision'.

I don't recall anyone looking at any of those players as ones for the future but rather guys with enough experience to compete for a place in the squad and CHAN team. They played their part at AFCON and our World cup prep.

The only players close to that description were our youth team players + a 17 year old Etebo who Keshi gave a debut to in 2012.

You don't recall? Really?
At the time they were all new and promising local players. So it sounds very odd that you say they merely had "enough experience" as if they were a stop-gap measure. That sounds as if you are talking with the benefit of hindsight, knowing now that their careers went nowhere special.

This was 2013, 2014 and those players I mentioned were between 23 and 25 at the time. Hardly veterans! The only other 'distant' future players getting the nation excited were the Iheanacho-Isaac Success-Yahaya-Alampasu (and Ndidi) set who were mere kids and had just won (or were about to win) the U17 World Cup.

You're right about Etebo who I forgot about but he was not much older than Ndidi dem. He had already broken through to the CHAN team as you say.

Well I’m referring to Oboabona in particular who was far from new at least if you knew what was going on in the local scene at the time. He was the best defender in the league and amongst the best on the continent with Sunshine Stars getting them to two consecutive semi final appearances. So there’s nothing “stop gap” about the role he played in helping us win AFCON and get out of the group stage at the World Cup. It wasn’t really surprising if you saw how well he played against the top North African sides away from home so I couldn’t underestimate that experience.

On the rest, regardless of how their careers went in Europe the majority of them had built quite the reputation in the local scene be it with their clubsides or with our CHAN team that made them viable options, but expecting anything more than that would be questionable based on their skill set

Around the same time Azubuike Okechukwu (U23 Captain) was just starting to create a buzz and now he’s a champion in the Turkish league...

A few others have come through the ranks like Chima Akas & Alhassan both doing pretty well in the Portuguese league right now. Even Ejuke that's supposedly been called up started off his career in the NNL