The invitation of the top scorer in the Europa League Victor Boniface to the Super Eagles for the AFCON Qualifiers , which was said to have been received without a return tickets has been proved as false.
It was widely reported that , the 22 year old who is the joint top scorer in the UEFA Europa League with Manchester United Marcus Rashford on five goals snubbed an invitation to the Nigerian team.
The report said he was asked to buy his ticket and will be reimbursed by the Nigeria Football Federation, when he shows up for the games which would have been his first in the colours of the senior national team of Nigeria.
Boniface took to Twitter to deny the report that he was called up for the games against Guinea Bissau in Abuja and Bissau respectively. 24 hours later the Nigeria Football Federation have now added their voice to the issue.
“By way of clarification, Victor Boniface was not invited for the Super Eagles’ AFCON Qualifiers against Guinea Bissau. He was on the provisional list but didn’t make the final list, and therefore was not sent a flight ticket”, the official Twitter handle of the Federation posted.
It means his situation is the same as that of Lorient’s midfielder Innocent Bonke, whose call up was announced by his Ligue 1 side but we were made to understand that he was on the provisional 34 man list for the games. He missed out when it was trimmed to 20 in the days leading to the game.
Mohammed Mowiz
