The Nigeria U-20 duo of Funsho Bamgboye and Samuel Opeh were axed for various reasons bar football by coach Emmanuel Amuneke before the Flying Eagles 2-1 win over Sudan in Omdurman in the final round of qualifiers for the 2017 Africa Youth Championship.
Bamgboye was the high profile casualty as he was part of the U-17 World Cup winner squad who are the bulk of the U-20s and his exclusion we exclusively gathered is due to a tussle with Aspire Academy over his ownership.
17 year old Bamgboye refused to return to the Qatar based Academy after helping Nigeria win the U-17 World Cup and despite all attempts by the academy to make him return he stuck to his guns and was on the verge of joining a team in Europe when the academy got wind of the deal and blocked it.
Aspire Academy petitioned the Nigeria Football Federation who now instructed Amuneke to leave the forward out of his team for the qualifiers untill the issue is resolved while Opeh’s proposed move to Serie B side Perugia cost him a place in the squad.
Opeh gatecrashed the U-20 team for the tie against Burundi and although he didn’t get to play his proposed move to Perugia saw him miss out of a chance in the team for the Sudan game as his International Passport is with the Italian Embassy hence he couldn’t travel with the team.
