Chelsea prodigy Adrian Akande has committed his international future to Nigeria despite being courted by the English Football Association, allnigeriasoccer.com can exclusively report.

Golden Eaglets coach, Manu Garba closely monitored the highly-rated winger in Abuja for about one week, with a view to naming him on the roster for the upcoming Africa U17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania.

Akande arrived the Nigeria U17s camp with a huge reputation, having netted an impressive 30 goals in 42 games for Chelsea's youth teams this season, while providing 22 assists.

''Adrian has been called for five England camps and has rejected all of them in hope of playing for Nigeria,'' Adrian's agent, Tobi Alabi who used to play for Millwall, told allnigeriasoccer.com.

Akande has certainly shown signs that he could cut it as a professional footballer as he has drawn comparisons to Chelsea superstar Eden Hazard and Barcelona's Ousmane Dembélé.

''He plays like Hazard and Barcelona's Dembele. He is two-footed, very quick and strong on the ball. He can score the same, with both right foot and left foot and he is a hard worker.

''He has no weaknesses. I saw a mention that defensively he isn’t strong but he’s not a defender, he’s an attacker so his defensive capabilities aren’t important, of course he will work hard for his team but he’s not a defender, '' added Alabi.

Adrian Akande played for the youth team of Crystal Palace before transferring to Chelsea at the age of twelve.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel