The Nigeria Football Federation have explained the reason behind Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr naming Arsenal linked frontman Henry Onyekuru in his 23-man roster for the upcoming African Cup of Nations qualifier against South Africa.

Onyekuru caught the eye last season, registering 24 goals in all competitions for Eupen, and the NFF have stated that they were keeping track of his performance all through the season.

''We do keep record of performance of all the players abroad, we have somebody who is doing that job, watching all the league matches to know how many minutes of the ninety minutes are played by our Nigerian players, even the number of goals scored,'' a top NFF staff told allnigeriasoccer.com when asked why Onyekuru was called up.

''The coach invited the players that will give him the result, up to this moment he has not lost a match.

''We are passionate about winning, the coach is conscious about the passion of Nigerians.''

The 19-year-old Onyekuru is one of seven foreign-based strikers named in Nigeria's latest roster, and will challenge the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho (Man City) and Ahmed Musa (Leicester City) for a spot in attack.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : Nigeria Football Federation