Former coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has lifted the lid on the length of time it took for him to convince Ademola Lookman to switch from England to the senior national team of Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
A very impressive performance at the AFCON with Nigeria going all the way before losing to the host Cote d’Ivoire 1-2 in the final , Lookman is the only African player nominated for the prestigious Balon d’or award.
His hattrick also powered Atalanta to Europa League glory helping them to a 3-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen. A trophy which sealed their spot in the UEFA Champions League, and their campaign will begin tomorrow with a game against Arsenal.
Lookman who is one of the stars of the Nigerian team and the clear favorite to win the Africa Player of the year award played for England at various youth levels, including winning the U20 World Cup in 2017.
Rohr while speaking on the rise of the new Super Eagles star explained it took almost two years for the forward to accept his offer to play for Nigeria, and unfortunately when he finally did he was no longer the coach of the team.
” It started in 2020 and the approval came in 2022 I was no longer the coach of the team. In my provisional list for the AFCON I listed him but we were still waiting for approval. It came in 2022 just after the tournament in Cameroon. I am happy with his progress so far even though he scored twice against my team”, the coach of Benin Republic said.
” I will say he was around the senior national team setup of England for a while, and we had to wait for him after speaking with his representative and some of his family members. It took two years and I am sure he isn’t regretting it now”.
