Bursaspor defender Taye Taiwo has expressed his interest to join his teammates in the Nigerian squad again after missing out of the Super Eagle’s games since Stephen Keshi became the team’s coach.
Having appeared 53 times in the Super Eagles games, Taiwo has missed out of the national team since coach Stephen Keshi took over as coach, who has replaced him with Elderson Echiejile and Juwon Oshaniwa.
Speaking with Goal on Tuesday, December 30, 2014, Taiwo who has a consistent passion to play for the Super Eagles stated that he his playing regularly in the Turkish top team, which according to him, is a testimony that he is still active and won’t mind getting an invite to represent Nigeria again.
“I’m still very much in active football. At my club I play regularly and my manager keeps wondering why I’ve been shut out of the Nigeria national team,”
“I am a Nigerian and if given the opportunity to do so, I will definitely do that with open arms. Why not? I will surely come.
“This is my country and I will never turn down any invitation because that has always been my priority.”
Known for his prowess at free kicks due to his powerful left foot, the defender feels Nigeria is missing a lot of attributes.
“Most times, when we lose set pieces during international games, I feel very bad because I would have scored if I was there,” he said.
The former Marseille player also debunked rumour that he had issues with Keshi which could have been responsible for his national team shutout.
“At Dynamo Kiev, I called to congratulate him on his appointment and expressed my willingness to be a part of his team, he assured me all would be well but till date, he never deemed it fit to send me an invite to the national team,” he continued.
“He would not pick my calls and I kept wondering what was wrong. Anyway, I still respect him and I can tell you that I don’t have any issues with him, his assistants and those at the Nigeria Football Federation.”
Taiwo also commented on the inability of the Super Eagles scale through to make Equatorial Guinea 2015 nations cup,as he said it was a tragedy for Nigeria despite the confident entrusted in them to successfully defend their crown following their exploits at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
“It is a big disaster that the Super Eagles failed to make the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
“After our performance at the World Cup, I had boasted to my African teammates that Nigeria would successfully defend the title but unfortunately, we missed out. It’s a big shame,” he concluded.
