Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has disclosed that the federation is monitoring Chelsea defender, Fikayo Tomori, and will not rule out an eventual move to convince the player to switch his allegiance to the Nigerian national team.
Tomori, who won the FIFA U20 World Cup for England in 2017 in South Korea, when they defeated Venezuela 1-0, was born in Calgary, Canada to Nigerian parents.
The central defender has commanded a regular spot in the Chelsea starting squad under Frank Lampard this season.
The 21-year-old player alerted the Nigerian federation to his availability when he declared to a British newspaper that he would consider playing for any of England, Canada and Nigeria.
“I’m a citizen of all three (countries) so we’ll see. I was born in Canada and lived there about seven or eight months old. My family is Nigerian, obviously I live in England. It’s nice to have that. I can’t play Under-21 football anymore so the last international break I didn’t get called up to anyone. Next one maybe we’ll see,” he told the Daily Mail.
But when contacted over the phone by THISDAY on Wednesday night, Pinnick confirmed Nigeria’s interest in Tomori.
He said that the NFF was already doing its homework and had launched a subtle approach to sway the defender to accept the overtures to represent the Super Eagles.
Pinnick, however, disclosed that they had been working on the agenda without going about it through the media.
The NFF President admitted that the federation had learnt a bitter lesson from the unsuccessful approach they made to Tammy Abraham, few years, when the young striker, who incidentally also plays for Chelsea was faced with the dilemma of choosing between England and Nigeria.
Abraham eventually opted for England even though the Nigerian federation wooed the player, in addition to holding talks with his father in London.
“I can tell you we are doing something about Fikayo Tomori. But we don’t want to do it in the media. We don’t want this to go wrong like the Tammy Abraham case,” Pinnick disclosed last Wednesday night.
