On the one side, there’s the Premier League’s reigning Footballer of the Year. With him, the English champions’ most expensive acquisition.
So, viewed through the lens of what likes to call itself the most competitive league in the world, Algeria will have some impressive attacking might in Uyo, Nigeria for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier between Africa’s northern giants and the grandees of the continent’s west.
But as important as Riyad Mahrez and record-signing Islam Slimani, the Maghrebis of the midlands, are for Leicester City, it is Nigeria’s Super Eagles who are entitled to think they bring the positive Premier League momentum into a high-stakes contest.
Survey the summit of English club football, and there are Eagles soaring at pacesetters, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, to the evident delight of Gernot Rohr, the technical adviser of a Nigeria side who sit at the top of what looks the toughest of all five in African qualifying groups for Russia 2018.
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Rohr has recalled Victor Moses, after Moses was left out of the squad that beat Zambia last month. His case for selection could hardly have been more persuasive, and the question he poses Rohr and the coaching staff after a stunning few weeks for Chelsea is not if, but rather where, he should play.
Moses, whose international career had suffered through several seasons of being loaned out to various clubs by Chelsea, has been reinvigorated since his speed, strength and growing tactical astuteness have been deployed at right wing-back by new Chelsea manager Antonio Conte.
The position is fresh to him, but he has two goals and an assist from his last five matches, a run of form coinciding with his club’s march up the Premier League table.
Conte arrived at Chelsea in the summer knowing that Moses, 25, had been sent out on loan to Liverpool, Stoke City, and West Ham United in the previous three seasons, but the Italian decided he wanted him. “I wanted to assess him with my own eyes,” Conte said.
“He’s a fantastic player and a fantastic man as well, and this is important for me.”
Rohr is understood to have considered the possibility of using Moses as a wing-back, adapting Nigeria’s usual formation, if not on Saturday, then at some point in the future.
Another Italian manager been beaming about another Super Eagle. Ahmed Musa, who, like Moses, made a strong contribution to Nigeria becoming African champions in 2013, joined Leicester City from CSKA Moscow in the summer.
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri thought him an ideal fit with the Premier League champions’ style.
“There’s a reason we wanted him — he’s very, very fast, and I saw from watching him at CSKA Moscow he was very strong covering his flank, helping the team,” Ranieri said. “He just needed to understand the intensity of the Premier League.”
When this writer asked Ranieri if Musa had achieved that, he nodded, though the process had been a challenge. “He understands the Premier League better,” said Ranieri, happy with Musa’s two goals in his last three outings for the club. “He had been unhappy about not playing so much. I said: ‘Don’t worry, you are very close to playing. We paid good money for you’.”
But Moses and Musa need only look around the top four of the Premier League to feel keenly aware there is sharp competition for attacking places in Nigeria’s XI from even younger compatriots.
Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho only turned 20 last month, a birthday he celebrated while on a run of excellent form. He has three goals and three assists in the Premier League so far, and has enjoyed the faith shown in him by Pep Guardiola, City’s new manager.
Iheanacho’s contemporary, Alex Iwobi, is at the same time rapidly establishing himself as a fixture in a stellar Arsenal forward line.
His club manager, Arsene Wenger, praises Iwobi’s “vision”, and has encouraged him to work on his finishing.
Nigerians are happy enough with that aspect of his work. Iwobi netted his first Super Eagles goal in the 2-1 win over Zambia to put Nigeria in the early ascendancy in a group that also includes Cameroon.
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