Former Super Eagles striker Brown Ideye has revealed that his exclusion from Nigeria’s squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup may have been influenced by his decision to part ways with his long-time Nigerian agent.

Brown Ideye was an important member of the Super Eagles side that won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

The former FC Dynamo Kyiv striker struck up a strong attacking partnership with Emmanuel Emenike, who went on to finish as the tournament’s top scorer.

Speaking on The Play Zone, Ideye explained that the fallout began during negotiations for a potential move to West Ham United while he was also attracting interest from West Bromwich Albion. 

"I was dropped (from 2014 World Cup squad) because I fired my Nigerian agent that have been with me all along," Ideye explained. "You know, I mentioned the deal of West Ham and the clubs that were looking for me."

According to Ideye, his Nigerian agent was handling talks with West Ham, but another UK-based agent facilitated the West Brom deal, which progressed faster and was ready to be finalized. 

"There is this agent that came with the West Brom deal and my Nigerian agent has the West Ham, and another agent from the UK came with the West Brom deal."

"The West Ham deal was not giving any greenlight while the West Brom deal was ready to go," he added. 

The striker said he eventually chose the more certain move to West Brom, a decision that angered his Nigerian representative. 

"I went with the one that was sure but he felt I betrayed him, that I went with another agent and he became really upset," Ideye said. 

Ideye added that he decided to end the professional relationship to avoid further conflict, but believes the fallout may have played a role in his omission from the squad.

"And I said, since it became this way, I would not want to fight with you, so let's call it a quit."

"I, 99.9 percent believe that that's the reason why I was excluded because him and Keshi are close," he concluded. 

The Super Eagles progressed to the knockout stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup but were eventually eliminated after a 2–0 defeat to France.

Adeyemi Adewale