Has Tottenham defender Udogie made the right decision to represent Italy over Nigeria?

It is no longer news that Italy's national team coach Luciano Spalletti has handed Tottenham rising star Destiny Udogie a maiden call-up to the Italy squad ahead of their 2024 UEFA European Championship qualifiers against Malta and England.

Udogie has also accepted to play for the four-time world champions, which means  he doesn't fancy playing for Nigeria at the moment 

This raises a question of whether he has made the right decision by choosing to represent the Blues over the Super Eagles.

To answer this, we shall be using the two factors ordinarily used by a player to represent a country or a club which are game time and likelihood of success.

Starting with game time, Udogie won't walk in to become the first-choice left-back for Italy at the moment because he has Inter Milan defender Federico Dimarco and his  Fiorentina counterpart Cristiano Biraghi to contend with which means his game time at the moment is not guaranteed.

It would be the same if he had chosen to represent Nigeria because Zaidu Sanusi and Bruno Onyemaechi are the first-choice left-backs presently and will have to fight for his position with them.

On the likelihood of success, there is no doubt that the chances of Italy winning a title are higher than Nigeria when you take a look at the current crop of players for both sides.

However, since winning the European Championship in 2021, the four-time world champions have been on the decline which means it is not cast in stone that they will win a title anytime soon.

Likewise, there is no assurance that the three-time African champions will win a laurel soon.

Therefore, it would be hasty to decide whether the Tottenham left-back has made the right decision or otherwise in choosing to represent the Gli Azzurri over the Super Eagles.

If he goes on to become Italy's first-choice left-back and win laurels with them, he would have made the right choice and if it goes otherwise, he would have made the wrong decision.

It goes without saying that time will reveal the correctness or otherwise of Udogie's decision.

Abdulkareem Abdulhamid

Photo Credit: tottenhamhotspur.com

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