Leicester City CB still eligible to represent Super Eagles after being left on the bench for Italy 

Leicester City central defender Caleb Okoli remains eligible to represent the Super Eagles as he was a non-playing substitute for Italy in a 2-1 win against Israel during a UEFA Nations League encounter at Bozsik Aréna in Budapest on Monday night, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

Had he featured, even for one minute, the Vicenza native would have become permanently cap-tied to his country of birth.

Okoli qualifies to represent the Super Eagles through his Nigerian parents, Paul and Tina Okoli who arrived Italy in 1996.

After he was an unused substitute against France last Friday, he had another chance to make his competitive debut for Gli Azzurri in tonight's fixture against the Israelis.

However, manager Luciano Spalletti bringing on Mateo Retegui and Mattia Zaccagni in the 86th minute ended his dream of a debut in September 2024.

Okoli has played sparingly since his summer move from Atalanta to Leicester City, having missed the opening two games in the Premier League before going the distance against Tranmere Rovers and Aston Villa.

The Italian-Nigerian was behind Alessandro Bastoni, Alessandro Buongiorno, Federico Gatti, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Riccardo Calafiori in Spalleti's pecking order of central defenders for the internationals in September. 

Okoli was a player of interest to manager Jose Peseiro during his tenure as coach of the Nigeria national team, with the Portuguese stating that he gave Ademola Lookman the task of convincing the dual-national defender to pledge his international future to Nigeria. 

The 23-year-old became provisionally cap-tied to Italy in November 2019 when he started against Malta in a European U19 Championship qualifier.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit: figc.it

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