'One of the best offensive midfielders I've ever seen' - Rohr confirms talks with Crystal Palace's Eze
Published: April 23, 2021Manager Gernot Rohr has confirmed that he is in talks with Eberechi Eze over committing his international future to Nigeria and had nothing but praise for the Crystal Palace star, saying he is one of the finest players in his position in the English Premier League.
Eze trained with the Super Eagles before a cancelled friendly
against Burkina Faso in March 2017 but since then his status has
changed as he is now provisionally cap-tied to his country of birth England and represented the country in the European U21 Championship last month.
Nigerian Federation president Amaju Pinnick has openly courted the former Queens Park Rangers dazzler but he requested to be given some more time to make his decision.
Though Rohr has admitted Eze is a player of interest, the German football tactician has stressed that the decision to represent Nigeria has to come from the player himself and he won't be forced to pledge his allegiance to the three-time African champions.
"This is a wonderful player, Ebere Eze is one of the best offensive midfielders I've ever seen in England and I would like to have him with us, but you know that he can also play for England and already played for one team in England," Rohr said to Elegbete TV Sports.
"There is a process to do, at first the boy must accept himself and the decision must come from him, from his parents, from his own.
"We cannot tell him he must come, he must come himself and if he wants to come he has to write a letter.
"In this letter he has to write to FIFA that he wants to switch and to play for Nigeria, this would be wonderful, but I know that we cannot force his decision and he can only take it himself.
"What we do is to explain to him how we are working, to explain to him what we are doing, and what our objectives are - what we did with players like Alex Iwobi, like Akpoguma, we did with Ola Aina and Tyronne Ebuehi.
"We have already some players like that, if we can have Eze it would be wonderful but it's not easy".
"There is a process to do, at first the boy must accept himself and the decision must come from him, from his parents, from his own.
"We cannot tell him he must come, he must come himself and if he wants to come he has to write a letter.
"In this letter he has to write to FIFA that he wants to switch and to play for Nigeria, this would be wonderful, but I know that we cannot force his decision and he can only take it himself.
"What we do is to explain to him how we are working, to explain to him what we are doing, and what our objectives are - what we did with players like Alex Iwobi, like Akpoguma, we did with Ola Aina and Tyronne Ebuehi.
"We have already some players like that, if we can have Eze it would be wonderful but it's not easy".
Just as Eze told Pinnick, the England U21 star informed Rohr that he needed more time to make a decision on his international future.
"I sent him a message and in this message I showed the interest Nigeria have to get him in this team so he replied and he said he has to think about it, so it is not the moment to speak too much about it," added Rohr.
Eze was involved in the three matches the Young Lions played at the 2021 European Championship and was on target in a 2-1 win versus Croatia.
Ifeanyi Emmanuel
Photo Credit : qpr.co.uk
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