Sports

Eguavoen, Amuneke Set To Meet Eze, Olise For Change Of Allegiance

Super Eagles interim technical adviser, Austin Eguavoen and his assistant Emmanuel Amuneke will be at Selhurst Park to see the game between Crystal Palace and Chelsea today (Saturday).

The duo are expected to meet with Crystal Palace stars Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze in a bid to convince them to switch their nationality from England to Nigeria.

Both players are eligible to play for the Super Eagles through their parents.

Olise was born in England to a Nigerian father and a French-Algerian mother, making him eligible to represent any of the four countries while Eze born in England as well to full fledged Nigerian parents from the south east.

Eze has represented the England U-21 level but through his parents, the 23-year-old also remains eligible to represent the Eagles.

Nigeria Football Federation boss Amaju Pinnick met with Eberechi Eze in London in 2017 for same purpose but the discussion did not yield a positive outcome as at then.

Eguavoen and Amuneke also have plans to meet with Southampton’s Nathan Tella, Reading’s Ovie Ejaria and Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo before the coaches return to Nigeria to finalise their squad list for next month’s crucial 2022 World Cup qualifying play-off against Ghana.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.