Flashback to two years ago when Gernot Rohr was freshly appointed as coach of the Nigerian team two Dutch-Nigerian players were approached by the coach to solve the problematic right full back position of the team.
Kingsley Ehizibue of PEC Zwolle was by far the first choice target of Rohr as he was already an established player in the Dutch Eredivisie with as many as 31 league games under his belt and a further 13 when Nigeria came calling.
Tyronne Ebuehi then of ADO Den Haag was plan B as he was just finding his feet at fellow Dutch top division side ADO Den Haag. Such was his desperation to cement his spot in the team that he turned down the first approach by Nigeria for his services.
Ebuehi later accepted to switch allegiance to Nigeria but Ehizibue thought otherwise and instead pledge his allegiance to the Dutch national team, where he got a call up to their youth team at same time Ebuehi trained with the senior team of Nigeria for the first time.
Fast forward to one year after, even though Ehizibue played as many as 33 games, Ebuehi who played five games less is heading to the World Cup and on the strength of his performance for Nigeria against Argentina in a friendly in November last year he has secured a big career move to Benfica.
Next season the 22 year old will play in the UEFA Champions League with the Portuguese giants and it will be months after playing at the World Cup for Nigeria. What a way to rise in a just a year, mostly thanks to his status as a senior international player for Nigeria.
23 year old Ehizibue will continue with modest Dutch side PEC Zwolle and with his age now above the age grade teams of the Netherlands. The decision to snub Nigeria two years ago is not looking like a wise step.
Daniel Martins
