England football team manager Gareth Southgate, has hinted that he is looking to block any plans of Everton FC young star Ademola Lookman to switch footballing allegience to Nigeria. Lookman impressed during his loan spell in Germany with RB Liepzig at the latter stages of last season. Though born of Nigerian parents, he has represented England at the U20 and U21 levels but recent reports indicates that the player might not be willing to commit his international career to the three lions probably due to limited playing chance and could rather, opt to play for Nigeria as he is still eligible to do so. Southgate fears that the Nigerian footballing authorities are pitching for the player strongly and could get their man soon. Reports qoutes him saying…
“I know every country is quite aggressive in their recruiting and I know they have always had an interest in him, but he is playing and has been in our squads, the 20s, 21s,”
“So in terms of encouragement through game time, we are doing as much as we possibly can” Southgate said.
Recall that previous English managers have managed to block the plans of players of Nigerian decent like Gabriel Agbolanhor, and most recently Tammy Abraham to represent the country, handing them one or two call ups to the English national team thereby making them in-eligible to represent other nations.
