Mobi Oparaku, a Nigeria ex-international, has accused Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, of killing the team.

Oparaku, a defender who played alongside Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, and won an Olympic Gold medal with the national side in 1996, revealed this in an interview on Monday in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The 44-year-old alleged that Rohr had tested over 500 players since his arrival without a formidable team.

“I cannot stand and mention 10 to 15 players in the national team that will start and finish the game,” he said. “Gernot Rohr, in the past five to six years has been building a team, he will change four, five, six players in every starting lineup.

“We cannot forge ahead or make any progress with such system. I am not convinced we can use such system to get what we want. We cannot mention 11 players that can start a game for Nigeria tomorrow because we have millions of them that have been tested but 11 cannot be mentioned.”

He called for a change of system whereby a new coach was employed to make things better.

“I have taken my time to watch the players Rohr has been inviting, I cannot say these are the ones we can reckon with. Rohr is always rotating as if we are not Nigerians, we are not playing for the world, we are Nigerians. He does not have anything to offer, whenever he travels, he brings a player, he is just bringing everyone,” Oparaku added.

Oparaku played six matches at the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship for Nigeria national team.

He also participated at the 1996 Olympic Games, where Nigeria won the gold medal as well as played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.

WuzupNigeria reports that former Nigeria striker, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, had in an interview in November 2020 shared a similar view. Yakubu, who played as a forward for the Super Eagles and various clubs in Europe, described the German tactician as the worst coach in Nigeria’s history.

“The coach is not good enough, let him go,” Yakubu who is the third all-time highest goal scorer for the national said in a Goal report. “Some of the boys are not good enough, I don’t know where they are bringing them from. Who is inviting these players?

“Our football is getting worse every day. When I was there, people criticise us, but we’re way better than these ones. The coach is not good enough, no clue. Gernot Rohr is one of the worst coaches in our history. He is not good enough.”