England U21 coach Gareth Southgate calls up four Nigerian youngsters for US friendly

altFOUR Nigerian young footballers who Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh has his eyes on have been invited to England's U21 camp by manager Gareth Southgate ahead of an impending friendly match against the US next month.

 

In a move that could threaten the possibility of these youngsters playing for Nigeria, the quartet have been invited to feature for England. They include Jordon Ibe of Liverpool, Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspurs, Dominic Iorfa of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chuba Akpom, currently of Hull City on loan from Arsenal.

 

Last month, Oliseh visited Ibe in Liverpool where he tried to persuade him to play for Nigeria as the Eagles coach intends to get as many Nigerians as possible to dual nationality to feature for his team. If the quartet agree to all feature for the England team, Nigeria will need to get them to switch nationality through Fifa before they can feature for the Eagles.

 

Under Fifa rules, once a player has featured for one country at youth level, before he can feature for another as a senior, he has to go through a formal switching process. This normally takes a few months once the player agrees to make the change.

 

Alli is getting his first call-up after scoring his first Premier League goal for Tottenham Hotspurs, in their 1-1 draw with Leicester City over the weekend. Iorfa, whose father played for the national team and is currently a football administrator in Benue State, has not been approached by Nigeria despite his good form for Wolves lately.

 

Of the four, Ibe is the most established, having gradually worked his way into the Liverpool side and is seen as a star of the future. Akpom, is also a player highly rated by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and has been one player the Nigerian Football Federation has been tracking for a while.

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