Arsenal youngster Alex Iwobi is set to make his Nigeria debut in a friendly match against Bolivia.
Iwobi, who is a cousin to former international Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, was not selected for the country’s U-23 All Africa Games qualifier in Gabon last weekend, as he is yet to finalise his international switch.
Emmanuel Ikpeme, the Deputy Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), said: “As a responsible body, there was no way we would have used Alex Iwobi to play for us in Gabon knowing the implication of such an act.
“The rules are very clear on players or country seeking to switch allegiance from one country to another, so Alex having played for England in the cadet level, there is no way he can play for us in any such level, unless the senior national team, this we are trying to do, luckily for us his parents have been of great help in this regard.
“We all know that the U-23 team is like the feeder team for the new Super Eagles we are trying to build, so bringing the young man to be part of this team was done on purpose, now that he has fitted and bonded with the team, our next target is trying to see how we can firm up the paper work with FIFA then invite him to the Super Eagles in our next international friendly, hopefully against Bolivia.”
Ikpeme also revealed that officials were looking to invite more of such players in future.
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