The first choice goalkeeper of LASK Tobias Lawal, who has been a revelation for the Austria representative in the Europa League says he is still open to the idea of playing for the senior national team of Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
The 23 year old has established himself as the first choice goalkeeper of LASK with 15 games under his belt, including the Europa League clash against Liverpool where he distinguished himself despite his team losing 3-1.
His form is coming at a time when Nigeria is desperately in need of a reliable shot stopper after two unimpressive displays from Francis Uzoho in the friendly games against Saudi Arabia and Mozambique respectively.
Lawal trained with the Super Eagles three years ago under former coach Gernot Rohr but wasn’t able to make his debut due to what the erstwhile coach explained had to do with his nationality switch from Austria to Nigeria.
Back then Rohr said for Lawal to be able to represent Nigeria he has to let go off his Austrian passport as the country doesn’t allow dual nationality.
“Tobias Lawal was the man of the match in his last game for LASK, he played already for Austria U2O, a friendly, so he could switch but the problem in Austria,” Rohr said in a press conference in 2020.
“You saw yesterday people from Nigeria’s embassy in Vienna were here and I asked them for the passport for Tobias Lawal, his father is Nigerian and his mother is Austrian, same like [Kevin] Akpoguma in Germany, it’s not the same situation unfortunately in Austria, they don’t give two passports, so if he has a Nigerian passport he must drop the Austrian passport.
“There could be some exception and this is not in our hands to give it, we’ll ask for it if he’s interested. He wanted to come and see how we are working if the group is okay if the atmosphere is good for him”, he rounded up saying.
In an exclusive chat with OwnGoalNigeria.com he said the situation is still the same that despite his wish to play for Nigeria, the process involved makes it almost impossible with the dual nationality policy of Austria, where he was born.
” I trained with the team because I wanted to play for Nigeria but the situation here made it impossible. My desire is still the same but sadly it’s not in my power. It’s so hard to happen, I have to be realistic”, he said.
Osas Mahawi
