While Nigerians see the Crystal Palace duo of Michael Olise and Ebere Eze as the two players the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria should focus on convincing them to switch allegiance to his team, the coach appears to have found a jewel in a certain 17 year old.
Peseiro was recently in England to monitor and also interact with Nigerian players but we exclusively gathered that he also held talks with players eligible for the senior national team of Nigeria as well as players recommended to him, who are relatively unknown but talented.
One of the players is Crystal Palace David Ozoh, the teenager also come highly recommended by the technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Austine Eguavoen. They spoke after Crystal Palace 0-3 loss to Fulham, a game Eguavoen watched.
Peseiro was briefed on his ability and the coach instantly became an admirer, and has penciled the midfielder’s name for further scouting and also monitoring as he makes his progress through the youth ranks of the English Premier League side.
He was named in a Premier League matchday squad for the very first time in Palace’s recent win at Bournemouth with coach Patrick Viera speaking on how much he love what he has seen so far in him.
“He has really grown since he’s been with us,” Vieira noted. “He’s been training with us [the first-team] really often, and adjusting himself to the tempo of the game, but he’s got the strength, the power and the technical quality to train with us every day.
“There is still a long way [to go for him]. He is just 17, and he was playing last year in the Under-18s, so he was playing up in the Under-21s. Now, he’s training with the first-team.
“He found it really difficult in the first couple of weeks but now he’s starting to get used to it. We have to give him time to grow and get used to being around the first-team players before asking him [for] too much.
“You have some young players who have a lot of attributes, but when they are around first-team players, they don’t have the courage or personality to play with this kind of freedom, so you’re looking at all those kinds of aspects.
“David’s been really good so far.”