As many as six players who were born abroad were keen on playing for the senior national team of Nigeria if they had made it to the Qatar 2022 World Cup according to a highly placed official in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Nigeria were unfortunate to lose out to Ghana on away goal rule after drawing 1-1 with Ghana in Abuja three days after a 0-0 away in Kumasi. The result ended their hopes of making it to the World Cup in Qatar.
That failure has cost Nigeria the services of some players born abroad who were willing to switch allegiance to Nigeria even though some of them they have played for other countries. Ghana who made it at the expense of Nigeria have since been successfully with five to six players pledging allegiance to the Black Stars.
Reacting, a chieftain of the NFF said its the fallout of qualifying for the World Cup that has made Ghana attractive to those players, and same would have been the case if Nigeria had made it to the World Cup.
” We had at least six who were already details away from joining us for the World Cup proper then the unfortunate happened. I know for sure that the duo of Jordan Torunarigha and Felix Uduokhai both youth international for Germany was as good as done”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
” Rohr was advanced with them before he was sacked. Then the president of the NFF Amaju Pinnick has a chat with Tosin Adarabioyo and it ended in a positive note. We also got confirmation from the duo of Ebere Eze and Michael Olise on speaking after the qualifiers.
” Then there was Felix Agu. Talks were really quick with him. We hope to revisit the discussion when the new coach settles down because it’s his call to make ahead of us”, he concluded.
