Considering his explosive form in Major League Soccer, was the ex-Internazionale man right to call time on his Nigeria career?
Following Nigeria's failure to qualify for the 2015 Cup of Nations, striker Obafemi Martins confirmed his retirment from international football.
Despite being a devastating presence in Major League Soccer with Seattle Sounders, the striker has largely been overlooked in recent years; he has made only two appearances with the national side since the beginning of 2013.
Considering what he could still offer the side, is he right to hang up his boots? Should we lament his departure?
In this feature, two of Goal Nigeria's finest debate whether the hitman was right to call it a day.
Obafemi Martins’ international retirement perhaps did not come under the right circumstances. However, neither did it cause the sky to turn red.
In truth, a player of Martins’s calibre should not be announcing his retirement in such hasty, malicious manner.
You’d expect a media conference to be properly announced and organized, with the media circus heavily accompanied by the paparazzi.
It is unfortunate that the former Inter Milan striker missed his timing and ultimately the jolly boat of good tiding. He misread the handwriting on the wall—one that Joseph Yobo, for instance, read wisely.
And now, he has to endure the laboured, soured, uninteresting reaction his belated international retirement announcement has garnered.
On the flip side of things, after the shocking disappointment (which still hurts, by the way) of the national team’s failure to qualify for the 2015 African Cup of Nations, was Martins really nursing the idea of returning to the national side?
It is a theory that stops the heart for a second, or two.
You felt it, too, right?
Let’s back up a second: if the Super Eagles had managed to qualify for the Cup of Nations, would Martins have made the team list? Huge debate…eh?
Be that as it may, the next competition the Super Eagles are likely be engaged in is perhaps the 2017 Afcon. And by then, he’d be near 33.
So why the animosity? Or, why hold on to it when it is obvious times have changed?
Obagoal made his debut for Nigeria on the 29th of June 2004, and managed 18 goals in 39 appearances—that’s neither the best nor the worst record out there.
With the team lacking goals, especially recently, it had been a struggle coming to terms with his exclusion at times. However, having been snubbed for two years (perhaps, for reasons ranging for footballing to personal—and it really does not matter) he should have worked out the maths and moved on.
His reason(s) for quitting rather unceremoniously actually points to the latter.
“I’m done with the national team, I will not go there anymore,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I do not have a good relationship with some companions,” he added.
It would have been more comforting had Martins and the Super Eagles parted ways cordially. However, the main thing is that he has now realized that the journey had ended a long time ago, and moved on as expected.
It is a perfectly normal thing – the need to be wanted.
Once a person finds themselves unappreciated within a setting, there is bound to be some disillusionment.
The surly tone of his retirement is hardly ideal, but it is hard to fault Obafemi Martins for the decision. Since making his debut in 2004, he has always shown commitment to the national side when called up. If he says he does not feel welcome within the present set-up, there is surely good reason.
The decision-making in squad matters is the exclusive responsibility of the coach, but the last three years have witnessed a regime with very little accountability in terms of squad selection. Hindsight vindicates some of Stephen Keshi’s decisions, but for every Aaron Samuel, there is a Nnamdi Oduamadi.
It must have rankled with a player of Martins’s profile and commitment to not have got a fair crack of the whip.
Representing one’s country is a big deal, and is clearly something Martins feels strongly about. When the time comes to leave the scene, you want to do it on your own terms, not by default. When you get a paltry two appearances in the last three years in spite of the goal return the former Inter striker boasts of with Seattle Sounders, you have every right to be miffed.
It is not a golden age of Nigerian strikers by any means. So perhaps Martins was right to feel aggrieved at not just his exclusion, but the manner of it. We are not privy to the inner workings and interactions between coaches and players, but we have a lot to go on.
The sagas of Peter Odemwingie and Ikechukwu Uche tell us something: the management was not always straightforward in dealing with those it chose to exclude. The case of Obafemi Martins is another case in point.
His decision to retire at this time is his prerogative, but it is clear from his statement he feels he still has something to offer. You doubt this? Well, the defences in Major League Soccer do not!
No one should be made to feel out-of-place with his own national side. Whatever your opinion on Obafemi Martins is, this is not the way for a player who gave seven years to the Super Eagles to leave the scene.
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