Ondo State Football Agency boss, Mike Idoko has stated that Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi’s success with the national team so far could be traced to his insistence on developing home-based players.

Idoko argued that before Keshi, successive managers of the national team have relied on foreign-based players who most times failed to bring out their best because of club commitments.

Keshi

Keshi has brought home-based players like Godfrey Oboabona of Sunshine Stars and Enugu Rangers’ Sunday Mba to prominence.

“I must commend Stephen Keshi for being fearless. He took a risk former managers, even the foreign ones, couldn’t take. I think he must have borrowed a leaf from [Clemens] Westerhof because he took time before building the USA ’94 team which we have not been able to assemble up till now. The NFF also must be commended too because if they had not given him the chance, Keshi wouldn’t have been successful,” said Idoko.

“All our boys now go to the Super Eagles to fight for a place because it is glaring that they are no longer training materials like they were in the past where the foreign-based were picked ahead of them. At the Africa Cup of Nations, he took along six players which has not happened before,” he added.