Ebere Eze completed a remarkable career rise when he joined English Premier League side Crystal Palace from Championship side QPR.
The 22 year old secured the move after a very good season with QPR which saw him earned a first call up to the U21 of England three years after training with the senior national team of Nigeria in London.
Eze spent two days in the camp of the Super Eagles when they camped in London in preparation for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. He impressed the coach of the team particularly coach Gernot Rohr.
At that time he wasn’t fully established at QPR and the coach thought it wise to allow him focus on his club career before handing him another chance to push for a spot in the senior national team of Nigeria.
Last season he finally delivered on the promises he showed in training with the Super Eagles with a string of impressive performances for QPR. As expected Rohr reached out to him ahead of the naming of his list for a 2022 World Cup qualifier game.
Eze asked for more time as he was on the radar of the English U21 team but Rohr made him to understand that if he plays for England and become cap tied it will require a long process that usually takes around 18 months before he can be eligible to represent Nigeria .
A meeting was arranged with his parents but it came a day after he was named in the U21 team of England and he decided to pick the cancer rather than team up with Nigeria.
Although he didn’t rule out switching allegiance to Nigeria in the future and he even met with the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) he also didn’t accept the offer of starting the switch of allegiance process.
It probably means he won’t be available for Nigeria for the qualifiers and even the World Cup even if they qualify because it takes a period of around one to two years to have a switch of allegiance approved by FIFA due to the complex nature of the English FA system.
Michael James
