21 year old Southampton forward Nathan Tella has played his way into the first team squad of the club with five games to his name already in the English Premier League.

Tella has also taken the first step towards getting a call up to the senior national team of Nigeria despite the fact that England is his birthplace.

Last year the head scout of the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Tunde Adelakun confirmed Tella as one of the players he will propose to Gernot Rohr as he has been tracking his progress.

An insight of what to expect from the forward when he eventually completes his switch has been provided by coach of the U23 team Dave Horseman who has worked with the forward the last two years.

“Nathan is a player and person we are proud of, who stays the same in terms of attitude no matter if he is with the first team or B team,” coach Dave Horseman said of Tella’s performances per Southampton website.

“The game versus Leicester showed the importance of the B team concept, as it allowed him to perform well using the same principles and philosophies of the first team.

“He plays with pace and energy with and against the ball and is direct when it comes to his thinking and actions.”

On loan Chelsea forward Ike Ugbo has confirmed his intention to switch allegiance to Nigeria from England where he made 20 appearances for their youth team.

Born to Nigerian parents in South London, Ugbo played for England 15 times at U17 level and a further 5 times for the U20 team with a combined total of 7 goals for both teams.

Now 22 and with no chance of getting a call up in the immediate to the English senior team, the forward who has scored 10 goals in 16 games for Cercle Brugge in Belgium confirmed he has filed his papers for a switch to Nigeria.

“ The paperwork is quite in order yet but my agent is working on it. Playing a World Cup is every footballer’s dream, Isn’t it?” He said in an interview with Hnl.be.

Ugbo also confirmed his willingness to see out the season with Cercle Brugge who are struggling despite his goals putting an end to speculations about a return to Chelsea his parent owners during the January transfer window.

“My agent deals with that. My focus is entirely on Cercle. I assume I will finish the season here”.

Latvian side Spartaks Jurmala have confirmed the signing of Oluwatimilehin Abiodun Ogunniyi popularly called Omojesu on a five year deal from Sunshine Stars for a fee of €10,000.

19 year old Omojesu scored the only goal for Sunshine Stars in their 1-0 win against FC Ifeanyi Ubah on Sunday via a well hit free kick which can easily pass as his farewell goal to the team.

However the league in Latvia won’t resume till February but he still would be required to be in Latvia later in the month for pre season training ahead of the start of the season.

Dropped from the Nigerian U20 team that failed to secure qualification for the U20 Cup of nations via the WAFU tournament he will become the fourth Nigerian player at the club.

Lucky Opara, Miracle Nwaorisa and Saminu Abdullahi are the other Nigerian player at the Latvian side who finished as sixth last season.

Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem Nigerian goalkeeper Adebayo Adeleye has set a new clean sheet record in Israel after going 793 minutes without conceding a goal.

Promotion chasing Katamon are eyeing a spot in the top flight of Israel with 20 year old Adebayo who has been firmly established as first choice the past two seasons heavily involved.

The goalkeeper who was a part of the 2017 U17 team of Nigeria made history yesterday when he posted another shut out to help his team to a 1-0 win Hapoel Petach-Tikva.

Adeleye last conceded a goal on the 23rd of November 2020 and since then he has gone 8 consecutive matches without conceding a goal and in the process set a new record for clean sheets in Israel.

This season he has raked up 11 clean sheets in 16 games while conceding only 8 goals in the process making him the Nigerian goalkeeper with the highest amount of clean sheets the past one year.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have received commendation from the medical team of the ongoing WAFU U17 Championship after the mandatory MRI Test result of the Nigerian team was released.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Test (MRI) was introduced to tackle the menace of age cheat with CAF setting up a new rule which says if a player fails it the entire team will be disqualified from the tournament.

In respect to that Nigeria who are five times champions of the U17 World Cup presented a team for the U17 Cup of Nations qualifiers which has now been confirmed as the youngest at the tournament.

No player from the Nigerian team is on the borderline grade 5 as the NFF insist on players who are mostly on grade 2 and 3 with only a few on grade 4. None of the players got close to grade 6 which is the first point for disqualification.

The result of the Nigerian team came as a shock to the medical team of the tournament leading to praises for the NFF for bringing a team with the aim of developing them and not just to compete.

Reports from the Netherlands has it that Bayern Munich are lining up a move for 17 year old Nigerian striker Emanuel Emegha.

The teenager has played 8 league games this season for the first team of Sparta Rotterdam in the Dutch league clocking a total of 252 minutes he has also played in the Dutch Cup but still without a goal.

Bayern have seen enough though despite his lack of goals for the first team and they are willing to snap him up on a small fee but leave him at the club to further develop this season before he joins their U23 in Germany ahead of the start of next season.

No bid has been officially submitted but Bayern have sounded out his representatives with their plans for the teen prospect who is eager to represent Nigeria despite his eligibility for the Netherlands.

In 2017 he played for the U15 of the Netherlands but since then he hasn’t played for them at any level making a switch to Nigeria if he is called up a lot easier.

The agent of 20 year old Elche midfielder John Nwankwo says he won’t think twice before accepting a call up to play for Nigeria if called up.

Nwankwo was born in Spain to Nigerian parents making him eligible for both nations but he is yet to be capped at any level by any of the country no thanks to his patchy ride to the top.

He spent time with the youth team of Villarreal before moving to Elche in July 2020 on a free transfer. He joined the B team with the hope of progressing to the first team.

The midfielder who made his LaLiga debut by starting in central defence against Atletico Madrid has also played the entire duration of two Copa Del Rey games that namely the 2-1 win over CD Bunol and 1-0 win over CF La Nucia.

Viewed as one of the next big thing at the club , his international future will no doubt spark a tug of wat but according to a representative of the agency that takes care of his career, Nigeria currently has the ace.

“ At this stage he is not thinking about it but if it comes he will jump at it. He is more Nigerian than Spaniard. For now the aim is to be a mainstay of the team”, a representative of Identify Sports Agency told owngoalnigeria.com.

Coach of the Nigeria U17 team Fatai Amoo has explained the reason behind his team 0-1 loss to Côte d’Ivoire in the first game of the WAFU B U20 AFCON qualifiers in Togo.

Nigeria were second best in the game and it came as no surprise when Ivory Coast scored lone goal of the game 14 minutes from full time to go top of the group.

The boys of coach Amoo now need an outright win against Ghana on their final group game on Saturday to keep their hope of progressing to the Africa U20 Cup of Nations alive and the coach says his team will get better in their next game.

“It was a very difficult games for my boys given the fact the fact that they have a situation whereby a lot of them have not have this kind of opportunity before and as a result they were bit jittery even though we played against a more formidable side given the preparations.

“But I will still not say my boys in particular are not good. They can really really do better and all the mistakes, errors we have notice we will go back and make sure we do necessary corrections before the next game”.