Rohr Explains Difficulty In Inviting Arsenal Super Kid Saka To Super Eagles

Published: October 04, 2019

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has admitted it would be difficult to invite Arsenal rising star Bukayo Saka to the national team because he has competitive caps for England's youth teams.

The Hale End Academy product was there for the taking until he became provisionally cap-tied to England after featuring for the Young Lions at the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and has also played competitively for the U19 squad.

It took a long while before former England youth internationals Ola Aina, Victor Moses and Sammy Ameobi were able to switch nationalities, and Rohr fears Saka would suffer the same fate if he decides to play for Nigeria.

The Nigeria Football Federation have attempted to woo Chelsea duo Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori and the English Football Association quickly stopped them in their tracks by handing call-ups to the Chelsea duo for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

''On Bukayo Saka of Arsenal, it is not easy to invite players who has played already for England or other countries in the U-17, U-18 and U-20 categories,'' Rohr explained to Sporting Life Nigeria.

''It is very tedious and requires long processes to do so. I could remember that it took us one year before Ola Aina’s issue was resolved before he was cleared by FIFA and was eligible to play for us.''

The 18-year-old Saka has played eight games for Arsenal's first team since his debut in November 2018, scoring once and providing three assists.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : arsenal.com