Failed Pursuit Of Bournemouth Star : Super Eagles Coach Shares His Side Of The Story

Published: May 31, 2020

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has admitted that he had a conversation with Bournemouth's Philip Billing about the holding midfielder switching his international allegiance from Denmark to Nigeria, where his father hails from.

The talks between Rohr and Billing did not lead to anything concrete, with the former Denmark U21 international recently proclaiming that he was not interested in playing for the Super Eagles.

The 23-year-old would naturally be frustrated after failing to make his senior debut for Denmark despite making the bench on six occasions.

Rohr revealed that it was Billing's agent that first contacted him over the possibility of his client representing the Super Eagles.

Having said that, allnigeriasoccer.com can independently confirm that Billing never informed Rohr that he was committing his international future to Nigeria.

"There was one problem with Phil Billing. Billing's agent called me and said he's interested to play for Nigeria, because he's not playing so much, only as a (unused) substitute for Denmark," Rohr said to Colin Udoh in an Instagram conversation.

"So he wanted me to call him, I said I didn't have his number so he gave me Billing's number

"He asked me some questions about Nigerian team and he said I'm very, very interested to play for you, but give me some time."

Rohr went on to suggest that Billing and his camp are using the interest from Nigeria to force Denmark to cap-tie the midfielder.

"I think the agent is using a little bit the interest from Nigeria to give him more chances to play for Denmark.

"Sometimes you can have these deceptions and disappointment," the Franco-German coach added.

Billing is competing with Christian Eriksen (Inter Milan), Lasse Schöne (Genoa), Thomas Delaney (Borussia Dortmund), Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (Southampton) and Lukas Lerager (Genoa) for one of the midfield spots in the Danish national team.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : afcb.co.uk

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