Football
Colin Udoh, Special to ESPN 6y

Brown Ideye headlines Nigeria's Unselected XI for FIfa World Cup

Brown Ideye's international career is essentially on life support after he missed the cut for Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr's 30-man provisional squad for the World Cup.

Having been left out in similar circumstances for the 2014 edition, this will be heartbreaking for the Malaga striker, who engineered a move away from Chinese club Tianjin TEDA to give himself the best possible chance of catching Rohr's attention. Sadly for him, one goal in 12 games in Spain is not the kind of return that gets attention or wins a ticket to Russia.

At 29, Ideye falls out of Rohr's preferred age range, especially as the German is in the process of developing a new breed of strikers, led by the likes of Victor Osimhen and Kayode Olanrewaju.

As such, Ideye leads our Super Eagles Unselected XI, who will be watching the action from their couches.

GK: Dele Alampasu
A lack of games at Feirense has come to haunt Alampasu, who was once considered to be the next in line of the young goalkeepers. As a matter of fact, Francis Uzoho, who now looks to be on his way to Russia, was back up to Alampasu at the Under-17 World Cup in 2013, which Nigeria won.

RB: Musa Muhammed
At the beginning of Rohr's tenure, Mohammed was regular fixture in the squad, despite a worrying lack of playing time at Istanbul Basaksehir. By the time he secured a loan move to Zeljeznicar and then Lokomotiv Plovdiv, Shehu Abdullahi, a converted midfielder, had annexed the right-back spot and established himself as first choice. And then Rohr found Tyronne Ebuehi...

LB: Kingsley Madu
Called up twice by Rohr, Madu was in the squad for the road win at Zambia and the 3-1 home win over Algeria in November 2016. Though impressive in his debut under Stephen Keshi, Madu failed to get any game-time under the German coach. After failing to get any minutes, the Zulte-Waregem defender was cast off. His situation has not been helped by the emergence of Ola Aina and Bryan Idowu.

CB: Efe Ambrose
Once a stalwart and senior member of the Super Eagles, Ambrose scored in the opening World Cup qualifier against Swaziland and then gradually dropped off the radar. Fans were never quite convinced about him, and there always seemed to be concern about his propensity of calamitous errors, however unjustified.

CB: Orji Kalu
Stephen Eze's centre-back partner at second string level, the Enugu Rangers man formed a useful partnership with Eze at the African Nations Championship. But despite Rohr taking a good, hard look during the tournament, he obviously remained unconvinced.

MF: Anderson Esiti
Esiti played just one game for Rohr, Nigeria's opening World Cup qualifier against Zambia which the Super Eagles won 2-1, coming on for Brown Ideye with less than 20 minutes to go. That was to be all for the talented midfielder.

MF: Nosa Igiebor
Former Vancouver Whitecaps player Igiebor was also in the squad against Zambia but did not see any minutes, and his ill-advised reaction to not getting picked cooked his goose then.

MF: Chidiebere Nwakali
Two call-ups but zero minutes for the talented youngster. Present for the 1-1 draw at Algeria in the final game of the qualifying series, and the fairly recent 4-2 friendly win over Argentina, Nwakali looks more like one of Rohr's projects of the future.

FW: Henry Onyekuru
But for injury, Onyekuru would most probably have been in the provisional squad. Called up by Rohr, the forward was a late sub in the 1-1 draw against Algeria, but failed to see any minutes against Argentina. However, his nine goals in 19 games before his injury would have been enough to get him a spot in the provisional squad at the very least.

FW: Brown Ideye
For all of the intangibles make up a talented player, one goal in 2018 is a poor reflection on a striker in a World Cup year. Ideye will contend that his hustle, hard work and physical play helps others get on the scoresheet, and in fairness to him, in the one game he played under Rohr, it was his assist that led to Kelechi Iheanacho's goal. But in the end, the numbers spoke a different language.

FW: Obafemi Martins
It is uncertain if Obafemi Martins would have received a call-up from Rohr, mostly because of his age (33) and the fact that he had not previously featured for the coach. But the veteran striker's goal-return in China, seven goals in 13 games last season and a hat-trick on the very first game back, should have at least put him in the conversation. Sadly, an injury in April ended his season and made everything else irrelevant.

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