Russian-Based Winger Eligible For Ivory Coast Called Up By Nigeria For U23 AFCONQ

Published: March 13, 2019

The Nigeria Football Federation have set the wheels in motion in their bid to win the race for the services of Olabiran Blessing Muyiwa, otherwise known as Benito, ahead of the Ivorian Football Federation.

Though the NFF have kept mute over the foreign-based professionals called up to beef up the Olympic Eagles ahead of their U23 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Libya, Russian Football National League side FC Tambov have officially announced with pride that their winger Benito has received a call to the Nigerian national team (U-23), participating in the qualification of the U23 Africa Nations Cup.

Born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Benito is also eligible to represent the Francophone country but it's Nigeria that have made the first move to provisionally cap-tie the 20-year-old.

FC Tambov congratulated their number 20 on his first-ever call-up to a national team and urged him to prove himself in the Nigeria U23s.

This season, Benito has made 17 appearances for FC Tambov across all competitions of which two were starts, scoring two goals.

He previously represented Saxan Gagauz Yeri (Moldova), Lokomotiv Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Luch Minsk (Belarus).

Ifeanyi Emmanuel