Tough luck, Nwakaeme: Rohr's Nigeria is no country for old men

The 30-year-old has been one of the standout players in Turkey this season, but is the victim of an aggressive youth drive by the Super Eagles coach

Amid the uncertainty that surrounds the future of Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr, it is perhaps proper to begin to evaluate his legacy.

Beyond arresting a rut that had seen Nigeria fail to qualify for consecutive editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, the German’s greatest impact is his determined slashing of the national team’s average age.

At the 2018 World Cup, Nigeria’s squad had the youngest squad in the competition, with an average age of 25.9 years; a year later, that average had dropped further to 24.3, the third lowest at the Afcon.

It is a policy that has seen excitement around the national team reach unprecedented heights. There is nothing quite as intoxicating as potential; the likes of Wilfred Ndidi, Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, Ola Aina and Chidozie Awaziem are unquestionably on an upward trajectory, and should be mainstays in the Super Eagles for many years to come.

Where he has been rather less successful is in finding a proper balance with experience.

The retirement of John Obi Mikel means that, leaving aside Ahmed Musa, the current oldest Nigerian outfield international is 27-year-old Ramon Azeez, who only recently made a return from a five-year absence.

Indeed, in the entire span of his four-year tenure, Rohr has only handed a maiden call-up to one player over the age of 27: Anthony Nwakaeme played against Algeria in a World Cup qualifier in 2017, but has not received another call-up since.

The situation surrounding the Trabzonspor man is an instructive one, and reveals a potential flaw in the German’s coach’s relentless youth recruitment drive.

While it can hardly be said that there is a substantial cache of potential game-changers aged between 27 and 30 who could immediately improve the Super Eagles, a blanket cold-shoulder approach to that demographic arguably presents something of a paradox in Rohr’s avowed meritocracy.

How can his mantra of consistency and high performance exclude a player who has, so far this season, been directly involved in 13 goals in 18 league appearances?

Surely then, these are not the foremost considerations.

There is a growing sense that Rohr’s insistence on youth is not entirely selfless at all, but is rooted in self-preservation and vanity. For one thing, it allows him, as he did at the World Cup and, to a lesser extent, at the Afcon, to cite his side’s inexperience as an excuse for mishandling certain situations.

When Nigeria failed to keep a hardly swashbuckling Argentina at arm’s length, he bemoaned their lack of nous despite having failed to address a tactical weakness that had been present all game. When Algeria flagged physically in Cairo last July but his side failed to turn the screw, he implied the players had been unable to recognise the opportunity to go for broke and had instead been anticipating extra time.

Beyond the youth of his squad acting as a shield against personal criticism, it also burnishes his wider legacy. Considering African nations can only realistically aspire to one senior international trophy – the Afcon – to be seen as the midwife of a new ‘Golden Generation’ for a continental powerhouse is probably the next best thing.

Perhaps this view is much too cynical. Coaches after all have their preferences – some believing the pliability of youth makes them more receptive to instruction and guidance, others more willing to bank on the experience within the squad to manage certain situations both on and off the pitch.

Rohr’s style so far has been a bit hybrid; he has been willing to lean on the leadership of Mikel and Musa, but has been reluctant to add more players of that same level of age or experience into the mix.

Tough luck then for a player like Nwakaeme, now 30, who received very little patience when he was afforded his shot close to three years ago.

Played out of position in a dead rubber in Blida, he had a rather forgettable time leading the line and has seemingly ceased to exist. That despite those aforementioned numbers, but also in spite of his work rate, dribbling ability (3.4 dribbles per 90) and playmaking (5 big chances created, 1.6 key passes per 90).

It seems unlikely that anything will change in that regard, even as meetings with Sierra Leone loom. Rohr has evinced a great deal of patience for the variance in performance from younger players (understandably) and those to whom he has taken a shine, but has been quick to jettison the older ones upon a poor showing; Mikel and John Ogu tellingly played no further part following their displays against Madagascar at the Afcon, but the likes of Ola Aina and Jamilu Collins have enjoyed a lot more leeway despite some high-profile errors.

It hardly seems fair, but it at least follows a consistent, identifiable pattern of behaviour upon which an unfortunate prediction can be made.

However many defenders Nwakaeme blows past now or in the months to come, the national team will remain very much closed to him, and by extension to players in his age bracket.