The last may not have been heard of the mystery surrounding the international future of midfield wizard and Queens Park Rangers playmaker Ebere Eze as NFF boss Amaju Pinnick provided a new twist to the growing debate.
Just as Super Eagles fans are coming to terms with the loss of another budding talent with the invitation extended to Ebere Eze by England's U21 manager, following the decision of Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori to team up with the Three Lions last month, President of The Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick has provided a new twist to the international saga.
Ebere Eze, 20, has been in superb form for QPR with his talents frequently drawing comparisons with Nigeria legend, Austin JJ Okocha.
Pinnick has however urged Nigerians not to lose hope in seeing the Rangers Number 10 star for and probably skipper the three-time African champions in the future, even if present circumstances appear otherwise.
“I have been taking to him (Eze), I speak to him everyday, I speak to his father, I speak to everybody. He's an excellent player, he loves this country that I can tell you,” Pinnick said in a Monday morning interview with ChannelsTV as monitored by Soccernet.ng.
“He is a young player, he wants to be given a bit of time but I talk to his dad, I talk to him, I'll meet them soon in London, we cannot allow such a talent to go.
“And he even told me jokingly, ‘President I want to be the captain of Nigeria some day', I was so excited about that and said, ‘Why not, you play like Jay-Jay, Jay-Jay was captain so you can be another captain'.
“He loves this country, I don't think we want to allow that talent to go.”
Eze has scored six goals and provided the assist for another four in 16 appearances for Queens Park Rangers in the EFL Championship this season.
