Crystal Palace Hero Salako Reveals : Nigeria Called Me Up First Before England Debut

Published: June 01, 2019

Crystal Palace legend John Salako has revealed that he was invited to the Nigeria National Team before making his debut for England against Australia exactly 28 years ago.

Born in Ibadan, the winger lived in Nigeria for ten years before relocating to England along with his mom following the death of his father.

Salako began to attract interest from the Nigerian Federation, English FA and Football Association of Wales after helping Crystal Palace to reach the final of the FA Cup in 1990 and finish third in the top flight the following season.

''Nigeria called me up first of all and then Wales wanted to call me up,'' said Salako to the official website of the Eagles.

''I had a chat with Steve Coppell and said to him: ‘look, I’ve obviously had a couple of call ups, I’m not really sure what’s going on or what to do.’

''He just asked me, ‘what’s in your heart? What do you want to do?’ I said I wanted to play for England and he just said to me: ‘I think you’re good enough so wait for England.’

''So in my mind it was clear I was focused on that and then amazingly about four or five months later, I got the call.''

Salako earned five caps for England before ending his career but all the games were international friendlies.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel