Interest from Nigeria in acquiring the service of Chelsea Duo Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham didn’t play any role in the call up of the duo to the senior national team of England according to coach of the English team Gareth Southgate.
The duo were handed a spot in the squad of England for their upcoming qualifiers during the international break bringing an end to the speculations about their international future due to their eligibility to play for Nigeria.
Coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr admitted that he spoke with both players over switching allegiance to Nigeria from England and revealed that they both asked him for time to consider the option before their decision to honour the call up from England.
Explaining the reason behind their call up, Southgate said they earned their spots in his team and went further by saying he didn’t call them up to cap them so stop them from switching allegiance to Nigeria.
“It’s not ethically right to give someone a cap just so they can’t play for someone else. Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori are both in on merit and have been part of our junior system right the way through, so we see them as English players and they have a huge desire to play for England at senior level”, the coach said while defending his decision to call up the duo.
