Chelsea Superkid Solanke Snubs Advances of Nigerian Officials Over International Future

Chelsea striker Dominic Solanke has been playing hard to get regarding switching his international allegiance from England to Nigeria, according to Team Nigeria UK boss David Doherty.

Team Nigeria UK is recognized by the Nigerian Federation and the Sports Ministry and one of its main responsibilities is to convince players with dual citizenship to play for Nigeria ahead of the country of their birth.

In that regard, it played a key role convincing Tottenham Hotspur winger Nathan Oduwa and Birmingham City’s Viv Solomon-Otabor to commit their international future to Nigeria, but Doherty has revealed he has not made any headway regarding Solanke.

“If Solanke does not make himself available for us to reach him like others we cannot do much on his behalf, ” said David Doherty to allnigeriasoccer.com.

“We tried to reach him but that seems to be the case, that he is not interested in playing for Nigeria.

“The question is will he be able to play for the Three Lions, I am not sure or confused he can. ”

Dominic Solanke was on the radar of Dream Team VI coach Samson Siasia before he released a list of 47 foreign-based professionals he invited to a get-together in Abuja in December 2014 but did not call up the striker as he has played competitively for England youth teams.

Born in Basingstoke 18 years ago, he has played for U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 national teams of England.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : chelseafc.com