By Akinwale Kasali
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has, again, lost out in its quest to make Chelsea Football Club duo of Tammy Abraham and Oluwafikayomi Tomori pledge their allegiance to the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Abraham and Tomori received a call up to the ‘Three Lions’ of England fold, as the England National Team is called, to prosecute the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship qualifiers against Bulgaria and Czech Republic.
Coach Gareth Southgate of England invited the players in the wake of speculation that the players have made their intention known that between Nigeria and England, the first Nation to invite them will have their allegiance.
Though Abraham had earlier featured for England in an international friendly against Brazil and Germany in 2017.
Despite playing for England in that International friendly, he can still play for Nigeria as he was yet to feature in a competitive match for the ‘Three Lions’.
For Tomori, he will be playing his first match for England if used in the qualification match.
According to NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, Abraham had already made his intention known that he was not ready to adorn the Green and White jersey for Nigeria, while it will be a long walk for Tomori to play for Nigeria, as it has to go through a lot of processes from the Soccer governing body, FIFA, for clearance, since Tomori had featured for England in the Under-16, Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19.
Corroborating Pinnick, Coach Gernot Rohr of the Super Eagles said he doesn’t have the duo of Tomori and Abraham in his plan.
He added that just the way it took Nigeria ages to get clearance for Ola Aina, Tyronne Ebuehi, Alex Iwobi, Victor Moses, William Troost Ekong Oluwasemilogo Ajayi, and the likes from FIFA, it will be the same situation the nation would go through for the duo.
He stressed that the attitude of Abraham towards playing for the nation was unsportsmanlike, and he can’t be forced or begged.
The fear of fans of the Chelsea stars is that the duo are trailing the part of Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ugo Ehiogu, John Fashanu, Carlton Cole and other notable stars who featured for England, but regretted their actions, as they were dumped after playing a match or two for England, before being axed from the England National Team and never received any call ups again.
