Nigeria to cap Arsenal ace Iwobi against Bolivia

Iwobi was picked by the country’s U-23 team for an All Africa Games qualifier in Gabon at the weekend even though he was yet to complete his change of international allegiance as required by FIFA.
Iwobi has played for England age-group teams and as such he would need to complete a process of changing his allegiance to Nigeria now.
According to the NFF deputy secretary general Emmanuel Ikpeme, the NFF decided to take the striker along as part of the new administration’s policy of encouraging Nigerians in the Diaspora to identify with the national teams and make up their mind to play for the country.
“As a responsible body, there was no way we would have used Alex Iwobi to play for us in Gabon knowing the implication of such an act,” explained Ikpeme.
“The rules are very clear on players or country seeking to switch allegiance from one country to another, so Alex having played for England in the cadet level, there is no way he can play for us in any such level, unless the senior national team, this we are trying to do, luckily for us his parents have been of great help in this regard.
“We all know that the U-23 team is like the feeder team for the new Super Eagles we are trying to build, so bringing the young man to be part of this team was done on purpose, now that he has fitted and bonded with the team, our next target is trying to see how we can firm up the paper work with FIFA then invite him to the Super Eagles in our next international friendly, hopefully against Bolivia.”