Coach is the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr is putting finishing touches to the list of players he will call up when Nigeria resume the race to be at the next Africa Cup of Nations in March.
Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal that Southampton 21 year old winger Nathan Tella will make the squad barring a last minute change of mind after his decision to switch allegiance to Nigeria .
Tella has not tasted international football with England at any level hence won’t be needing any form of clearance from FIFA to play for Nigeria. In October chief scout of coach of the Nigerian team Tunde Adelakun listed him as part of the players he is watching at close quarters.
“In Southampton, I am still watching Nathan Tella, it’s great to see he’s now making starts in the Premier League.”
“The main aim is to get the best players to play for Nigeria. It doesn’t matter whether he is based in Europe or Nigeria. We want the best players,” he added.
This season he is slowly emerging as one of the breakaway stars of Southampton and only yesterday he played for 58 minutes to help his team to a shock 1-0 win over reigning English Premier League champions Liverpool.
He was introduced for the injured Musa Djenepo in the first half of the game in what was his fifth appearance of the season with the rest coming in games against Tottenham Hotspur, Burnley, Chelsea and Manchester City.
His inclusion in the squad is coming hot on the heels of reports that as many as three players who were part of the Super Eagles last squad for AFCON qualifiers won’t be called up in March.
“ I can tell you for free that three players who were part of the last team won’t be in the next squad. Rohr has seen enough of them and want to try new players or hand recall to players who were missing back then due to injury”, a source told this portal.
