Emma Njoku
England coach, Gareth Southgate, said he will not guarantee Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomorin shirts in his Three Lions’ squad that will face Czech Republic and Bulgaria in European Championship qualifiers on October 11 and 14, respectively.
Abraham and Tomori, both of who play their club football for Chelsea of England, are of Nigerian descent, and despite efforts by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to convince them to play for the Super Eagles, they appear to have pledged their loyalty to England, having been called up in the Three Lions’ squad for the forthcoming Euro Championship qualifiers.
Should both players feature for England in either of the competitive matches against Czech Republic or Bulgaria, that would put paid to their eligibility to to turn out for Nigeria for the rest of their football career.
Regardless, Southgate has admitted that it is morally wrong to cap-tie both players just to prevent them from representing Nigeria.
Speaking to reporters with regard to Abraham after his squad announcement on Thursday, Southgate said: ‘’I haven’t discussed it with him, I have left Frank (Lampard) to have the conversation to let him know he’s in the squad which is always nice for a club manager to be able to do.
‘’We have got literally close to hundreds of players now in our system with dual nationality, so I don’t think it is ethically right just to give a player a cap to make sure they can’t play for somebody else.’’
Southgate described Abraham and Tomori as homegrown talents, hence, their allegiance is with England despite being eligible to represent Nigeria.
He said: ‘’The two boys, Fik and Tammy, are in the squad this time on merit. I’m not going to guarantee that they are going to get on the pitch, but they have been part of our junior system; Fik came a little bit later than Tammy, but he’s been part of the youth team that won the World Cup.
‘’As far as we are concerned, the two boys have been developed through English football. They are English players, and I’m sure they have huge desire to play for England at senior level.”
