UK based Nigerian football administrator David Doherty has given the true picture of things regarding the international future of Luton Town FC duo Gabriel Osho and Elijah Adebayo, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
The duo are eligible for the senior national team of Nigeria as well as England but are yet to be cap by both nations at any level. Their performances this season for newly promoted Luton Town has ignited talks about their international future.
Osho has stamped his feet as one of the first names in the team whenever coach Rob Edwards picks his defenders with two goals to his name including one against Arsenal, while Adebayo has nine goals this season. Both players are playing in the English top flight for the first time in their career.
In January Adebayo became the first Luton player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League when he netted a treble in the 4-0 win over Brighton. He also scored against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City so far this season, as well a last minute equaliser against Nottingham Forest in October.
Speaking on the 26 year old forward and the 25 year old defender, Doherty revealed that both players have been keen on playing for Nigeria long even before they made the step up to the English Premier League.
He made it known in a post on Team Nigeria UK Instagram handle giving a detailed timeline of their interest in representing Nigeria despite their eligibility for England.
Below is the text from his post.
So, I have seen some news headlines and updates from a few media platforms and blogs about the future of both.
Let us make it clear here once and for all, Gabriel Osho and Elijah Adebayo have always been open and committed to the Nigeria project from day one, and there has not been interest or move from England for both duos, so there is no point trying to score points for putting out headlines like NFF should go after them now o.
Let start from Gabriel Osho, whom we knew from age 16 at Reading FC and was one of the young prospects,, our plan then under the programme [ Soaring Eaglets ] for young Nigerian descents was when we got to know him and Adebayo, alongside many other youngsters, so we got to meet with his Mom [ Mrs Osho] and exchange digit and that of Gabriel Osho as well [The funny thing is I still had a brief chat with him of recent ]. Like I said, Osho has always been open to Naija, no doubt.
For Elijah Adebayo, first got to know about him at 16yrs during his days at Fulham FC Academy head of recruitment Malcolm Elias, who is still very much with the academy at fulham up till date.
I remember we even organised a friendly as part of our search for young Nigerian descents across the UK with Fulham U16’s a year after. However, Adebayo has moved up age as at then.
Fulham has always Nigerian descent on their books any same with Reading FC.
