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BY MONICA IHEAKAM
SUPER Eagles interim coach, Salisu Yusuf has tipped the duo of Manchester City striker, Kelechi Iheanacho and Arsenal youngster, Alex Iwobi , to shine in the senior national team for the next 10 years.
Yussuf, who handed the youngsters prominent roles during the two international friendly matches against Mali and Luxembourg,insisted that quality is the key word rather than harping on years of experience ,adding that Nigeria now have a pool of exciting young talent, who if given the chance will flourish for many years at full international level.
“You don’t need experience of five years before you are given responsibility as long as you have the quality.”
“Kelechi and Alex have hardly started for the Eagles, but I started them in both games and they responded very well with Iheancho scoring in both games and providing assist as well,” he remarked.
“We won the two games we played by playing some good football and with a very young group.
“As much as 90% of those who featured in those games can play for Nigeria in the next 10 years. We have a base now that we can be developing, maybe two, three players joining up from time to time and you maintain this group to play for the country.”
He added: “We gave the young players responsibility, we also gave them belief and confidence, and they took it.
“Look at Iwobi – In the first game against Mali, he started and played for 75 minutes and in the second game, he was on for more than an hour, while previously he played 15, 20 minutes for the national team.
