The decision of the technical crew of the Nigeria U23 team to hand a call up to Irish born Hezekiah Okirikpo as part of the foreign based players for the U23 AFCON qualifiers game against Tanzania has been termed as a wrong move.
The forward who just turned 19 is among the ten foreign based players called up by coach Salisu Yusuf for the game and he is said to be a player of Irish side Dundalk FC , who are third in the Irish top division. However he isn’t a part of their first team.
Per checks by OwnGoalNigeria.com senior editor Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman, his contract at the club expired on the 1st of October meaning he is presently clubless. His main highlight at the club was playing for the U19 who won the youth league.
Okirikpo joined Dundalk in 2021 on a deal that expired in October and he is rated as a very strong and quick forward who is also good in the air but generally can be said to be a top player by any metric. As a matter of fact he isn’t even known for goal scoring despite his role as a forward.
His invitation to the Nigerian team can be termed as a move to help bring his club career back on track using the U23 of Nigeria, which has been decimated by issue of age discrepancies which led to the axing of 15 of the 32 players initially called up.
