The Technical assistant to the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has taken out time to explain the process of luring a player who have played for another country to switch to Nigeria.
Tunde Adelakun in an interview with aoifootball revealed it goes beyond wanting the player and the Nigeria Football Federation as the country the player have represented have to also give their consent.
The process as explained by Adelakun partly shows why the likes of Ebere Eze and co will find it hard to switch nationality from England to Nigeria at senior level.
“Some of them only know the UK as a home for instance. Because that’s where they grew up. So they need to be softly convinced to jump ship. Makes it more complicated when they have played at one age-grade level for the European country where they were born. They need to write a letter unequivocally stating that they want to come to play for Nigeria, and that by writing that letter, they have given up their rights to ever play for their country of birth.
“That can be really scary for a young player. But they do. Then they need to prove their Nigerian citizenship. By having a passport of their own or at least for one of their parents to have a valid Nigerian passport. This proof of citizenship is key,” Tunde further revealed to aoifootball.
“We also have to request from the nation’s FA (England and the home countries if the player is from the UK) asking them to give a no-objection verification to the NFF for the release of the player. Sometimes this is difficult because the said FA might still feel they potentially could do with the player’s services in the future.
“It’s when we get the no-objection confirmation that we can put it all together in a package and submit to FIFA for their approval,” Mr Tunde concluded.
