Almost six Nigerian players who took part at the recently concluded 2019 U17 World Youth Championship have been turned down by clubs in Europe, Owngoalnigeria.com understands.
The Nigerian team was the toast of scouts before the start of the tournament judging by how well players from the team have progressed in past editions but this time around most scouts admitted that they didn’t see any player worth investing in the Nigerian team.
So far only two of the players have secured deals abroad with captain Samson Tijani set to join Red Bull Salzburg while Olakunle Olusegun has joined Russian Academy ‎side Vista which is the nursery team of Danish side Fremad.
” So far three players of the team are negotiating deals that are more like developmental as they will spend like a year on trials. The rest have been rejected. Yes as many as six were rejected by clubs that I won’t mention”, an agent revealed to Owngoalnigeria.com.
” Beside the fact that the team didn’t do well, the players individually didn’t help themselves. So it has cost them and I won’t be surprise if only two get deals abroad. It’s sad because Nigeria have a pedigree of producing good players at this level”, he concluded.
