Eguavoen reveals he attempted to lure Aston Villa icon Agbonlahor to play for Nigeria but was snubbed

Augustine Eguavoen has revealed that he attempted to lure Gabriel Agbonlahor to play for the Super Eagles but was snubbed by the Aston Villa legend in 2006, his first stint as interim boss of the national team.

Born in Birmingham, Agbonlahor, who is now retired and is a pundit, qualified to play for three countries namely England, Scotland and Nigeria but opted to play international football for his country of birth.

Eguavoen visited Villa Park in Birmingham to sound him out on the possibility of representing the Super Eagles but the player was not interested in seeing him.

Agbonlahor became cap-tied to England when he started for the Three Lions in a World Cup qualifying match against Belarus in October 2009 - the last of his three international caps for England.

"When Agbonlahor was in Aston Villa, I went to England, I tried to reach him on the phone before going to Villa because it's not a place you just go to, Aston Villa Stadium in Birmingham, and start looking for a player," Eguavoen said to Elegbete TV Sports.

"The question was why do you want to see Gabriel Agbonlahor? I said I am the coach of the national team, we are interested in him coming to play for Nigeria, I want to have a conversation.

"They said okay they'll get back to me. They got back to me only to say Agbonlahor is not ready to see anybody at this point in time, maybe some other time.

"Take for example you invite Agbonlahor from Aston Villa, you'd look stupid if he doesn't show up, so you must engage people first, discuss and find out if it's something they want to get into or not."

Agbonlahor is Aston Villa's all-time Premier League top goalscorer with 73 goals in 322 appearances.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : avfc.co.uk