There are few more contentious issues in a player’s career than having to choose what national side to turn out for when they have dual nationality. You won’t find too many people on the fence when it comes to a subject as emotional as this one with most feeling morally outraged when a player opts for a country with a greater chance of international success, as opposed to the one of his birthplace. For Sammy Ameobi, it isn’t quite as straightforward as that.
Born in Newcastle, Ameobi has lived his entire life in England but qualifies for Nigerian citizenship through his parents who were born in Nigeria before immigrating to the North East in 1986. Ameobi’s first taste of international football, however, came for Nigeria at u20 level when he made his debut in 2011 in fixtures against Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Kiko Casilla will not want to see this one again…
Sammy Ameobi catches him out at his near post and Forest are in front against Leeds!
Watch live Sky Bet Championship action over on Sky Sports Football: https://t.co/nl9foUdG4I pic.twitter.com/ezZDQBSLVH
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) February 8, 2020
At this stage, it looked like the 18-year-old would commit his future to Nigeria but only eight months after he had played for the Flying Eagles, Ameobi answered the call up from Stuart Peace and turned out for the Young Lions, England’s u21 side. You can imagine that officials at the Nigerian Football Federation were not best pleased with the news and in their eyes, the 19-year-old had just burned his bridges with the country of his father’s birth.
Only, in 2014, after Ameobi’s hopes of an illustrious England career looked about as possible as snow in the streets of Lagos, the Newcastle player officially committed his future to Nigeria. There would have been more than a few eyebrows raised in the NFF boardroom as this sudden U-turn.
Some six years on from that official declaration though and Ameobi is still waiting for a call from football’s governing body in Nigeria that in all likelihood, will never come. Should that be the case though and has the time come for the gatekeepers of international football in Nigeria to let bygones be bygones?
The 28-year-old’s form for his current team Nottingham Forest suggests that the time may well have come to reevaluate Ameobi’s international exile. So far this season Ameobi has been an ever-present for Forest with 36 starts, three goals, and eight assists. Ameobi produced one of the performances of the season against the league’s best side Leeds United in a 2-0 win, this match report shows how influential he was: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51268162.
Ameobi’s move to Forest in June 2019 has certainly been the catalyst for his sudden upturn in form and when you watch him now, he’s very often the best player on the field.
Indeed, joining the Reds as the official site recalls here www.nottinghamforest.co.uk/news/2019/june/ameobi-joins-the-reds has ignited a failing career and all of a sudden given Nigeria a winger who could absolutely aid the national cause with a World Cup now on the horizon.
Unreal from Sammy Ameobi to set @OfficialBWFC on their way to their 1st league win of the season ➡️ @EFL highlights from 9pm on @channel5_tv pic.twitter.com/o21FiNSZa0
— Channel 5 Sport (@Channel5Sport) October 14, 2017
Now, if you were to look at Nigeria’s chances in Qatar in 24 months, you would find the Super Eagles at odds that range from 100/1 to 250/1. In fact, all of these bookmakers at www.sportsbettingcanada.org offer varying odds on the Super Eagles’ chances in the Middle East, but punters who want to minimize that risk can cash in on all their respective welcoming bonuses which can be used as a free bet on the winner of the next World Cup.
Needless to say, however, there’s a bit of a discrepancy in the odds but the overriding feeling is that the Super Eagles have an enormous amount to do to win their first-ever World Cup. When all is said and done, Nigeria will need all hands to the pump and a resurgent Ameobi could well be playing in the Premier League by then, if that’s the case, the NFF simply have to let the past go, move on and pick him.
The sad truth is that cutting off your nose to spite your face is a recurring theme in Nigerian football politics so one shouldn’t wait with bated breath on Ameobi finally being included, but then again, it’s surely impossible to ignore a player who is blazing the trail in England.
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