The chances of Crystal Palace midfielder Ebere Eze playing switching his allegiance to Nigeria still remains slim despite glowing comments made about him by coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr.
Rohr was full of praises for the 22 year old who turned down the chance of representing Nigeria for the English youth team. The coach revealed he has a liking for the way he plays and hope he switches to Nigeria soon.
“This is a wonderful player, Ebere Eze is one of the best offensive midfielders I’ve ever seen in England and I would like to have him with us, but you know that he can also play for England and already played for one team in England,” Rohr said to Elegbete TV Sports.
“I sent him a message and in this message, I showed the interest Nigeria has to get him in this team so he replied and he said he has to think about it, so it is not the moment to speak too much about it.
“There is a process to do, at first, the boy must accept and the decision must come from him, from his parents, from his own.We cannot tell him he must come, he must come himself and if he wants to come he has to write a letter.
“In this letter, he has to write to Fifa that he wants to switch and to play for Nigeria, this would be wonderful, but I know that we cannot force his decision and he can only take it himself.
However a representative of the midfielder told Owngoalnigeria.com that for now, Eze is still holding onto his dreams of playing for the senior national team of England after making it to the U21s.
“ It’s a gradual process when you eyeing the senior national team. Eze isn’t thinking of switching allegiance yet. The focus is to do well in his first season in the English Premier League with Crystal Palace”, he said.
“ When it’s time to make a decision he will but for now he has played for England at a step just above the main team. It’s normal to focus on making the first team than entertaining thoughts about a switch of nationality”.