Arsenal’s young star Ethan Nwaneri is expected to be one of the big players of the future.
According to recent reports, the player is expected to choose Nigeria over England for his national team allegiance.
FIFA’s New Rule and Nwaneri’s Situation
According to FIFA’s new rule introduced in 2020, players who have made three or fewer senior international appearances can switch their national team allegiance to another country where they hold citizenship.
However, FIFA’s rule emphasizes that these matches cannot be friendly games; they must be tournament matches.
Arsenal has previously nurtured players like Ashley Cole, Theo Walcott, Bukayo Saka, and Jack Wilshere for the England National Team. However, this time, they seem to be losing a potential huge star to Nigeria due to this rule.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is working hard to bring the player into the Super Eagles. Nwaneri made history as the youngest player ever to feature in the Premier League. He achieved this feat at just 15 years old when he played against Brentford.
Nwaneri has appeared more than 30 times for England’s U-17 team, scoring 15 goals. However, according to FIFA’s rule, this is not significant.
Nigeria’s Plans to Recruit More Stars
Nigeria has previously succeeded in bringing players like Alex Iwobi, Ademola Lookman, Calvin Bassey, and Ola Aina into their national team, even though they played for different youth teams or were born in different countries.
Moreover, due to the abundance of attacking talent in England, Nwaneri may not get much playing time with the senior team for a long time. For this reason, the likelihood of the Nigerian player choosing the Super Eagles is quite high.
An official from the NFF made the following statement about the young player to SportsBoom:
“He’s a fantastic player, and we really want him. In fact, it was coach Eric Chelle who first suggested we should bring him into our squad.”