The international future of 20 year old Supersport United defender Ime Okon is one that is yet to be settled with the defender eligible to play for both Nigeria and South Africa, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Okon is seen as one of the best talents coming out of South Africa with reports of a move to a top club in Europe reportedly on the cards this summer. A move that will further expand the debate on his choice for senior international football.
Okon was born in South Africa to a Nigerian father, so he is eligible to play for both Bafana and Nigeria, although he was called up to the camp of South Africa ahead of the AFCON, he didn’t make the final squad of coach Hugo Broos for the tournament leaving his international future in the air.
Speaking on the situation, former Bafana Bafana head coach Owen Da Gama blames the South African Football Association for not doing enough to lure SuperSport United wonderkid Imire Okon to pledge his international allegiance to South Africa.
“I don’t know how they are running their database at the moment, but I believe that if Nigeria can get the word of it before we are, then we need to pull up our socks you know”, he told Kick Off.
“We must make sure we are on top of it because we are a first-world country here in Africa.
“We’ve got all the facilities, we’ve got the network working here, we’ve got all the facilities here, we should be on top of our game in knowing every possible player playing in the PSL and in the NFD.
“I don’t think we doing enough scouting when it comes to that because I’m not seeing a lot of movement and information.
“We don’t get a lot of news about it about, hey we are scouting this guy and he is playing in Holland.
“Like Lars Veldwijk, we picked up with Shakes Mashaba that this guy was playing in Holland and his father was a South African.
“And we immediately invited him to have a look at him, I think we should be on top of our game when it comes to any possibility of strengthening Bafana.
“I mean France and a lot of top teams in the world are doing it, even in England they are doing it.
“We should be on top of our game with any possible quality player, at the moment I don’t think we doing enough of that.
“I think it got a lot to do with sustainability, we need to get a database, there’s a lot of youngsters that are playing in Europe that are South Africans.
“We should be monitoring and following them to understand what is happening but we don’t read enough of this”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
