The Nigeria Football Federation has cleared the air on why it took Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi to Gabon as part of the selected players for the trip.
According to the Deputy Secretary General of the NFF, Emmanuel Ikpeme , making the clarification in Gabon, the NFF decided to take the striker along as part of the new administration’s policy of encouraging Nigerians in the diaspora to identify with the national teams and make up their mind to play for the team.
“As a responsible body, there was no way we would have used Alex Iwobi to play for us in Gabon knowing the implication of such an act, the rules are very clear on players or country seeking to switch allegiance from one country to another, so Alex having played for England in the cadet level, there is no way he can play for us in any such level, unless the senior national team, this we are trying to do, luckily for us his parents have been of great help in this regard”
“we all know that the U-23 team is like the feeder team for the new Super Eagles we are trying to build, so bringing the young man to be part of this team was done on purpose, now that he has fitted and bonded with the team, our next target is trying to see how we can firm up the paper work with FIFA then invite him to the Super Eagles in our next international friendly, hopefully against Bolivia”
Ikpeme disclosed that very soon more of such players would eventually be invited to be part of the national team set up.
