Orlando City's Young Sensation Eligible For Nigeria, USA Targeting National Team Call-Up

Published: November 28, 2020

Orlando City striker Daryl Dike wants to become an international footballer in 2021 and is targeting a call-up to a national team.

Born in Edmond, Oklahoma twenty years ago, Dike qualifies to represent Nigeria through his parents as well as his country of birth, United States.

Daryl's eldest brother Bright Dike has been capped by Nigeria and his sister Courtney shone for the Falconets at the 2014 Women's World Cup before representing the country at the Women's World Cup a year later.

The younger Daryl was in a rich vein of form for Orlando City in the tail end of the regular season, scoring in each of his last four matches

Voted the MLS Player of the Month for August 2020, Dike is a finalist for the AT&T MLS Young Player of the Year award, an accolade previously won by Maurice Edu and Tesho Akindele.

On his national team aspirations, Dike told the official website of Major League Soccer : "At the beginning in Orlando, I was sitting there thinking ‘OK, this is a little hard.

"Now there's things that even two months ago are so much easier than now, than they were two months ago.

"I think the thing is, as you go from step to step to step to step, you get more comfortable. You get more comfortable in saying, ‘OK, I think I can kind of belong here."

Dike was selected No. 5 overall by the Lions in the 2020 MLS SuperDraft and has totaled 23 appearances for the club in all competitions.

Igho Kingsley

Photo Credit : instagram.com/daryld09

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