Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle has openly confessed his admiration of 19 year old Al Ittihad striker George Ilenikhena, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Ilenikhena moved to Saudi Arabia in the January transfer window from French Ligue 1 giants Monaco, but Chelle revealed he still has his eyes on him.
Born in the Nigerian city of Lagos but raised in France, he turned down the chance of committing his international future to Nigeria when he was approached by Chelle while still at Monaco.
Despite his refusal, Chelle hasn’t taken his eyes off him and revealed after yesterday’s 2-0 win over Zimbabwe at the Unity Cup, that he is among the diaspora players he is targeting for the team.
Chelle made this known in response to a question on if he is scouting players born in Germany, who are eligible for the team. He also confirmed our report on injury been the reason why Bayer Leverkusen winger Nathan Tella wasn’t available for the tournament.
“Nathan was supposed to come but he had an injury. We follow maybe 80 players in a week in Europe and follow 150 players in a month. So we follow a lot of players in Europe particularly Germany and England. Some of them in Saudi Arabia because we have a striker who played for Monaco he is a good player”, he stated.
“But the first idea is that we have a good team and at this moment they are at the top. So this is the moment they have to win something and like I said we have to analyse every game that we play and I just hope that this team improve. I do my job”, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
