Izuchukwu Okosi
By Izuchukwu Okosi
Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr has confirmed that the duo of Ademola Lookman and Ovie Ejaria will be named in his 40 man provisional squad for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon to be held in January 2022.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) recently increased the number of players to be named by each squad from 23 to 28 making it possible for new players to make the cut for the first time.
The application for the international eligibility of Everton forward Lookman, and Reading FC’s Ovie Ejaria from England to Nigeria is ongoing and could be processed early enough to guarantee the players being part of the Afcon squad.
Rohr spoke in an interview with Elegbete TV about the chances of the Nigerian born youngsters.
“Yes, we are in touch, he’s in our scouting program, we are seeing every weekend what they are doing,” the Franco-German stated.
“We have around 30, 35 players and now I have to do a list already for the AFCON of 40 names because CAF is asking for that so we have until the beginning of November now to put together this list of 40 players.
“Lookman and Ejaria of course are part of it, and then this competition we have to watch what they are doing at the clubs and the people who are doing very well in the clubs have always a chance to come into our team.
The two members were part of the England squad that won the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup.
Ejaria trained with the Golden Eaglets class of 2013 which included the likes of current Super Eagles players Kelechi Iheanacho, Taiwo Awoniyi and Francis Uzoho, but was omitted from the final roster to the United Arab Emirates.
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.
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