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| Ezekiel Imoh |
Newly
capped Super Eagles and Standard Liege of Belgium striker, Ezekiel
Imoh, has revealed how his father influenced him to play for Nigeria
despite the pressure he got from Belgians to dump the country and play
for them.
Imoh who spoke to the Super Eagles Media
Officer, Ben Alaiya, in Atlanta, United States during the international
friendly match against Mexico, said he was actually approached to
fast-track his Belgian citizenship papers. And he actually wanted to go
along with their suggestion.
He said, “Ordinarily, it takes three
years of stay in Belgium to apply for citizenship but after two years I
was called up to get the papers and I was really excited by the offer.
But when I called my dad back home in Nigeria, he told me not to because
they were only luring me with it so that I could play for Belgium. It
took a long argument between both of us on the matter but at the end of
the day I had to reason with my father.”
The striker, who made his international
debut in a goalless draw against Mexico on Wednesday, said the Belgian
football authorities wanted him in their junior team immediately to
prepare him for the future, but pressure from Nigeria was also huge and
that forced him to settle for the Eagles.
“I was encouraged then to
join them because more than half of the Belgium national team players
are not original indigenes of the country and I thought I could be one
for the future but that has changed now that I have played for Nigeria.”
punchng
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