The disappointment of missing out on Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori who could make their England debuts this week could have dampened Nigeria’s football authorities spirits, but that’s not the case as they are set to go for another Chelsea star in the person of Ike Ugbo.
Ugbo was born in Lewisham, south London, England but qualifies to play for Nigeria through his parents. Although he has represented England at youth levels, Nigerian football officials have been monitoring his progress at Roda JC in the Netherlands second division where he is on loan at from Chelsea.
According to the Dailymail, Nigerian officials were at Roda’s game last Friday where Ugbo scored his fifth goal of the campaign in De Koempels 2-1 win at Telstar.
The Super Eagles are making an early move to convince the 21-year-old to switch his allegiance in order to avoid a Tammy Abraham scenario.
The Chelsea number nine was eligible to play for the Super Eagles through his parents but opted for England which was his country of birth.
Nigeria are not prepared to let that happen again in the case of Ugbo who played for under Lampard for the Blues during pre-season.
The 21-year-old have played eight times for 14th placed Roda in the Erste Divisie this season and have scored five goals.