President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick says Reading of England midfielder Ovie Ejaria is eligible to represent Nigeria following a successful switch of allegiance application from England.
Pinnick was reacting to reports that eight players have been cleared to play for Nigeria and he confirmed that for now only Ejaria is free to play for Nigeria at senior level.
Ejaria trained with the Nigeria U17 team of 2013 but had to leave the camp before the final list for the tournament was released. He later played and helped England U20 lift the World Cup four years ago.
Ovie Ejaria has been cleared by FIFA to play for us (Nigeria), that I can confirm to you, I’m not aware of the others,” Pinnick told The PUNCH.
“We won’t beg anybody to play for us. If you want to play for the Super Eagles, you have to write to the federation informing them of your intention. We will look at your statistics and decide if the player has what it takes to play for our national team or not,” Pinnick added.
“If you get the nod, then you know that you are going to fight for a place in the team. If the others have applied to play for us, no problem, their letters will get to my table.”
Now at Reading on a permanent deal after failing to nail down a spot at Liverpool. He will help solve the creative midfielder void in the Super Eagles which has remained an area of concern for coach Gernot Rohr.
