The crisis rocking the senior national team of Nigeria in defence might soon be a thing of the past if the head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro gets his wish by luring Augsburg defender to the team.
Peseiro is said to be worried over the lack of minutes the center backs in his team are facing at their clubs in Europe ahead of the resumption of the qualifiers for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. He is also concerned about their future in the long run as they are pivotal in his quest to win the next edition of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Presently only Chidozie Awaziem has enjoyed regular run of games since the start of season among the centre backs. Ironically the 26 year old who is on loan to Croatian side Hajduk Split isn’t that rated by the coach who gave him his debut at FC Porto back then.
OGN exclusively gathered that the Portuguese coach has made made contact with Felix Uduokhai of Augsburg with a view of luring the 25 year old to the senior national team of Nigeria. Uduokhai has played in 13 Bundesliga games this season.
It’s not the first time that he has been approached to play for Nigeria with erstwhile coach Gernot Rohr thrice making efforts to convince him to pick Nigeria ahead of Germany. So much that Uduokhai who has played for Germany at several youth levels was asked about it by the official website of the German Bundesliga in an interview two years ago.
Below is an extract from the interview.
Bundesliga – Kevin Akpoguma recently decided to play for Nigeria, can you imagine going down the same route as Kevin?
Uduokhai: “We’re going to see. For me, the most important thing is that whatever you do you decide with your heart. It’s a decision I have to make, maybe not now but it’s a decision I want to make when I’m 100% sure I want to make that step. Right now, I’m not in a position to say let’s do that, or this, I need some time. We’re going to see what happens in the next few weeks and months.”
