Nigeria Fails to Wrestle Tammy Abraham from England’s Grasp

Nigerian football fans woke up to disappointing news this week when they discovered that one of the brightest young stars in the game, Tammy Abraham, had been called-up to the England squad for their impending European qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

London-born Abraham was eligible to play for Nigeria owing to his parental lineage.  He has featured twice previously for The Three Lions, but both were friendlies, which did not bar him from switching allegiance. 

It is, however, thought he will be named in England manager Gareth Southgate’s starting-11 for the upcoming 2020 Euro qualifiers, preventing him from ever playing for Nigeria.

In addition, Southgate has also given the nod to Fikayo Tamori, again denying the Super Eagles another promising hope.

Tamori was born in Canada, representing them at youth level, but could have also been selected by Nigeria because of his parents.

Back in 2017 Abraham received his first England call-up, quickly stating that there was never any chance he would elect to play for Nigeria over England.  Despite this, as recently as this week, Abraham said he was “undecided” on his international career, feeling frustrated at the lack of an England break.

Southgate defended his decision after facing criticism from some who claimed England simply wanted to deny Nigeria the chance to use the two players.  He explained that it wasn’t “ethically right to give someone a cap just so they can’t play for someone else” and that “they are both in [the side] on merit”.