The battle for the international future of on loan Chelsea forward Tammy Abraham is far from over despite England calling him up to their senior squad for upcoming games later in the month.
20 year old Abraham has scored four goals for his loan side Swansea City, a form which has earned him a rise from the U21s to the senior team of England.
He was named by manager Gareth Southgate in the squad to face Germany and Brazil in two high profile friendly games, but even if he plays he can still represent Nigeria who are keen on his services.
President of the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) Amaju Pinnick met with Abraham last month to discuss a switch of allegiance to Nigeria, but the forward denied talks took place in that regards before finally admitting three weeks ago that talks over a switch of allegiance to Nigeria is on.
Despite his call up to the England team he can still represent Nigeria at senior level per Article 18 provison 1, sub section a of FIFA Eligibility Rules, which says ” He (Player) has not played a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition at “A” international level for his current Association, and at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition for his current Association, he already had the nationality of the representative team for which he wishes to play”
The above rule means friendly match appearances do not commit a player to one country, hence Abraham playing for England in any of their friendly doesn’t mean he can’t represent Nigeria any more.
The rule has already worked in the favour of former Chelsea Brazilian striker Diego Costa who played for the senior team of Brazil in a friendly game, but presently represents Spain, even England suffered similar fate in the hands of Ivory Coast international Wilfred Zaha.
Zaha also played in couple of friendly games for England, before the Crystal Palace player switched allegiance to the Ivory Coast at the start of the year.
Michael James
