Foreign-Born Players Not Allowed In Nigeria U17s : Ex-Watford Teen Sensation With 71 Goals Across Two Seasons Dropped

Published: September 07, 2019

It has become clearer that the Golden Eaglets coaches led by Manu Garba have no intention of including foreign-born players on Nigeria's roster for the 2019 FIFA U17 World Cup, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

Former Watford super kid Nigel Aris is the latest dual-eligible player to be declared surplus to requirements after training with the Nigeria U17s for more than one week.

One of the most direct wingers of African descent in the whole of England in his age group, Aris notched up 71 goals in his last two seasons at Watford, 31 goals during the 2017-2018 season and 40 last campaign.

It doesn't add up that players representing the academy teams of European elite clubs have been told they are not up to the Golden Eaglets standard.

The players born abroad were not allowed to play a full game during the Golden Eaglets training matches and despite that they outperformed some of the local-based players.

In the camp there were three groups and the foreign-born players were always in the last group which contained players labelled not good enough or weren't being looked at. The group only played fifteen minutes a day.

A number of Premier League clubs have banned their your young players from attending training camps in Nigeria and even the lower league clubs stated that playing for Nigeria U17s is a waste of time.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel