Partizan Belgrade of Serbia striker Sadiq Umar says he is now eligible to play for the senior national team of Italy as he has passed all criteria laid down by FIFA for players willing to switch allegiance to other countries.
Although the forward insist he isn’t thinking about playing for Italy at the moment even though he believe he hasn’t been fairly treated by the handlers of the senior national team of Nigeria after his exploits at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Sadiq finished as top scorer for the Nigerian team that won bronze and he said it came as a surprise to him when Gernot Rohr who came in as coach almost after the Olympics didn’t look his way.
” I am eligible for Italy but it’s not what’s on my mind at this stage of my career. My goal is to move to a league a notch higher than where I am at the moment but the national team handlers of Nigeria have not been fair to me”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.
“For instance I was top scorer at the Olympic, the coach came in and called other players in the same team leaving me out. When I had one of my best seasons in the Netherlands I still wasn’t called up. Maybe things will change soon”, he said.
Before football was brought to a halt in Serbia Sadiq was purchased by Partizan Beograd from Roma after scoring 16 goals with 13 assists six in 34 games, six months into his one year loan deal at the club.
Osas Mahawi
