Portuguese giants FC Porto are close to adding another Nigerian to their first team squad ahead of the start of pre-season training in preparation for next season, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Porto presently has Nigeria international left back Zaidu Sanusi in their first team and he could be joined in the team by Marcus Abraham, who spent last season on loan to their B team from Nigeria Professional Football League side Remo Stars.
Portuguese publication Record says his loan came with the option of making the deal permanent for a fee of €750,000 ( excess of 600 million Naira), which Porto have already said they will pay.
A deal is said to be imminent in order to have him in time for pre-season, where he will be integrated into the first team on a permanent basis. He made his debut for the first team last season but was more involved with the B team.
He made a total of 30 appearances for the B team, scoring nine goals and also providing one assist. A performance which was deemed good enough by coach Sergio Conceicao for him to be given a permanent deal.
Abraham made his only international appearance for Nigeria in 2021 when he played in both legs of the back to back friendly games against the senior national team of Nigeria, which ended 0-1 and 0-0 respectively. He played three minutes in the first game and got 23 minutes in the second game.
Since that game he hasn’t been given a look in but he will be hoping for a change if his transfer goes through and he manages to break into the first team of the Portuguese League Cup winners next season.
Daniel Martins