The 2022 World Cup gets underway in Qatar today with the senior national team of Nigeria not at the event after failing to qualify by losing on away goal rule to Ghana.
However as many as five players of Nigerian descent will be at the tournament including those who were eligible for Nigeria and even indicated interest to play for Nigeria but weren’t given a look in.
One of them is Ike Ugbo who switched his international allegiance to Nigeria after representing England at several youth levels, but had to dust his Canadian passport after getting cold shoulders from the former coach of the team Gernot Rohr.
Ugbo’s goal-scoring put him on the radar of multiple national teams. In September 2021, as Ugbo was beginning to find the back of the net with Genk on a new permanent deal in the Belgian first division, he publicly stated that he would represent Nigeria. The chance to play in the 2022 World Cup was a driving factor.
Quietly, Ugbo still hesitated with his decision. He says now that he never heard from then-Nigeria national team coach Gernot Rohr throughout the process.
“And,” he added, “I never grew up in Nigeria, either.”
His first conversation with coach of Canada John Herdman in October 2021 changed everything and now he is heading to the World Cup following their qualification for the World Cup for the first time in almost four decades.
“(Herdman) knew about me from when I was at Chelsea,” Ugbo said. “He knew exactly what I was going through. He spoke to me about the ambitions of Canada and what he’s trying to do and what he’d already done. Already I could see, without him telling me, the direction Canada was going in”, he told The Athletic.
