Torn between playing for Nigeria or England, veteran coach Roy Hodgson is of the view that Eberechi Eze can go right to the top by deciding to play for England.
Hodgson hailed Eze for scoring three times in the last two games to move Crystal Palace clear of the relegation scrap.
Eze, who qualifies to represent both Nigeria and England, was set to be selected by Gareth Southgate for the provisional 33-man squad ahead of Euro 2020 but was unable to accept the call due to an Achilles injury.
And while Hodgson won’t be contacting Southgate to make a case for his inclusion, the 75-year-old former England boss said Eze must be aiming for a berth.
“The people watching for Gareth Southgate at the moment will be making their assessments and they don’t need help from me on that subject,” said Hodgson. “If you are talking about a player’s ambition, young as he is, a massive possibility to keep improving and doing well with every Premier League game he plays, if I was him, I would be saying I’m so good that I’m going to make that my ambition.
“The only way he will do that is by producing more of these performances and hoping that Gareth and (his assistant) Steve Holland watch him and come to the same conclusion that this is a guy who can help us out.”
After falling out of favour under Patrick Vieira, Eze is certainly helping Palace out and with the club now sitting on 36 points, securing Premier League football for next season is surely now a formality.
The win at St Mary’s made it the maximum points for Hodgson since returning to Selhurst Park three games ago. He was again coy on his own future but, with Palace now seemingly safe, Hodgson insists there is still plenty to play for this season