Crotone of Italy striker, Simeon Tochukwu Nwankwo (Simy) and AA Gent of Belgium winger, Moses Simon have both gained words of praise from Croatia’s national team scout, Ognjen Vukojević.
After watching ‘Simy’ get his debut with the Super Eagles against DR Congo on Monday, Vukojević opined that Nigeria now has a striker that should be feared at the World Cup, but believes Simon would not be missed if he eventually does not make it due to injury.
Vukojević is of a view that Eagles manager Gernot Rohr will not lose sleep over the injury sustained by Simon, because he reckons that the player is replaceable.
Vukojević, who has been hired by Croiatia’s coach, Zlatko Dalic to specially monitor the Eagles started off with his assessment of Nigeria’s international friendly against DR Congo on Monday and picked one player that impressed him.
The former Dynamo Kyiv midfielder and teammate of Olarenwaju Kayode at Austria Vienna praised the qualities of Nwankwo on his debut for the Eagles.
”A real African player. Fast, agile, direct, very interesting,” said Vukojević, who is also bound to be at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to watch Nigeria against England.
He added: ”I am particularly interested in this game in London, they will be much more clear here, I want to see how Nigeria, who have a lot of players playing in the Premier League, performs against the English team.
”Will they possibly dominate or even the English will be dominant? This game will give a lot more answers than the match with Congo.”
He also spoke about the possibility of Simon becoming the fifth player that will be axed from the Eagles’ World Cup roster if further tests to be carried out in the United Kingdom confirm that the crafty winger faces up to three weeks on the sidelines.
Vukojević said about Simon: ”Good player, but I don’t think it is that much of a handicap. He was in a group of 15-16 players.
”They will miss him in terms of squad depth and solutions. But he is not someone whose miss will demand big changes and whom Rohr can’t replace.”
