Former Nigeria coach and player, Emmanuel Amunike has stated that the absence of Nigerian players in top European clubs like Barcelona or Real Madrid is down to generational changes and the quality of top players in the world.

In a chat with brila.net, The former African footballer of the Year praised the current crop of players in the national team and feels we will bounce back “Is not that we don’t have players that can play for Barcelona is just that generation changes and when you look at Nigeria football history in the 90s.

We have struggled to raise great quality players from the 94′ World cup & AFCON, 96′ olympics and the last generation at the 98’world cup after that we had a gap between our national team, but I think we’ve good players now with Samuel Chukwueze in Villarreal and Victor Osimhen in Lille are doing well with big clubs interested this means we are in the right direction and hopes are high that the national team will bounce back to what it used to be.”

However, The Former Barcelona player expressed his optimism that Nigerian players will make it into European top clubs in the future, but called on Nigeria Football administrators to invest in the youth development.

“Football changes but it depends on our capacity because a nation that does not develop his youth is a waste nation, so we can’t hope to win the world cup without developing our youth players because this is where we can get the replacement of the present Eagles squad when they can’t serve us anymore.”

“I hope to see a Nigerian playing at top level and believe in the near future we will have players that Liverpool, Madrid, Manchester will be interested in this will help boost the confidence of younger players.”