Nigeria U15 Coach Opens Door For Chelsea Starlet, 19-Goal West Ham Winger To Train With Future Eagles

Nigeria U15 national team coach Usman Haruna has opened the door for dual-eligible players, Chelsea's Ashley Akpan and West Ham's Joseph Johnson in particular, to train with the Future Eagles.

While the Nigeria Football Federation are yet to make a move to cap Akpan, who is also eligible to play for Poland and is on the radar of the English FA, Hammers young winger Johnson has been sounded out to the technical department of the NFF about his availability to play for the Future Eagles.

Speaking to allnigeriasoccer.com, Haruna explained : ''We cannot disenfranchise any Nigerian because for the fact they were born outside does not mean we should disenfranchise them.

''The most difficult part of it is that we don't encourage scouting for players from outside the country because we have a lot of talents here but if anyone of them can come and try their luck and compete with the players born in Nigeria, we will appreciate that.

''It's their country, everybody is free. If I fall into their category I don't want anybody to disenfranchise me but the question is there are a lot of resources that go into inviting players from outside.

''If you can do that yourself, come here and participate in what we are doing with the other boys, why not. And that's what Omidiji was doing.

''It is free to participate but we will not go to the level we want to look for U15 players outside, that means you are a lazy coach when you have talents here that can be made to be the Maradona of tomorrow.''

Haruna was pressed more on the possibility of Akpan and Johnson earning call-ups to the Future Eagles and he replied : ''If we are in camp, we will encourage them. Nobody can say they cannot be part of it.''

Joseph Johnson took his tally for the season to 19 goals after scoring against Peterborough United U16s this past weekend.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel