Super Eagles centre-back Leon Balogun pledged his international future to Nigeria in 2014 under Stephen Keshi's watch despite his eligibility to play for Germany.

Unfortunately, the decision came too late as he was already in his mid 20s, which means he has limited time with the Super Eagles.

Balogun is currently in the later stage of his career and Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr should commence his search for a young defender with great quality as the player's possible replacement.

Rohr shouldn't look at any player other than West Ham youngster Olatunji Akinola who seems to be the perfect man to replace the 30-year-old defender.

Akinola, 20,  joined the Hammers since he was eight years old and has  featured for the Hammers U23 team this season.

The highly-rated defender has massive potentials to becoming a key player in the Super Eagles setup in nearest future.

Akinola can equally turn out to be an upgrade to Leon Balogun due to his  ability to feature in any position at the back of the pitch which is obviously missing in Balogun's game.

Having played in 11 Premier League 2 games this season, the youngster already has a considerable amount of experience needed to become a top class defender, and he could be part of Manuel Pellegrini's team for next season.

Nigeria should make a move for his service now that he's very young to avoid repeating the same scenario that happened with Leon Balogun, who had his international debut at the age of 25.