Recent reports in some Nigerian media has it that Crystal Palace midfielder Ebere Eze told former NFF president Amaju Pinnick that he will be open to playing for Nigeria if they make it to the 2022 World Cup, which was played in Qatar.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the World Cup losing out to Ghana in the plaoff on away goal rule and according to reports Eze would have agreed to play for the Super Eagles, if they had made it to the tournament.
It was claimed he struck the agreement with Pinnick, who met with him thrice in London in a bid to convince him to snub England for Nigeria. Eze trained with the Nigerian team in 2018 during a camping exercise in London.
In a message sent to OGN, a certain Chima who claims to be a brother of the Crystal Palace star said at no point was such an agreement reached between Eze and Pinnick. Insisting that there is no iota of truth in the report.
” That report isn’t true. Eze was close to getting his first call up to the senior national team of England for the Euros and that was 2021. Eze discovered he was part of Gareth Southgate’s plans immediately after hurting his achilles in training for his club back then”, Chima told OGN.
” He was one of the shining light for the England Under-21 team and Southgate noticed, he returned to the dressing room and found a message from the Football Association telling him that he was in the senior squad for the first time. That was around the same time, the news claimed he agreed to play for Nigeria. How does that sound”, he asked.
” Ese could yet play for Nigeria in the future. That door has never been closed and he told Pinnick the same thing. We wait and see what the future holds but at no time did he list qualifying for the World Cup as a condition to play for Nigeria. That’s false”, he rounded up saying.
