England-Born Dream Team Star Reveals How 2 Super Eagles Legends Helped Him Decide To Play For Nigeria

One of the key players expected to make the difference when Nigeria’s U23 national team trade tackles with Zambia today (Tuesday) in a crucial African Cup of Nations Under-23 match, Tom Dele-Bashiru has opened the lid on why he shunned England to play for his fatherland.

The Watford midfielder, who watched from the bench as Ivory Coast won the group opener 1-0 at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo, has revealed that two Nigerian legends played their part in his decision to play for the African giants.

“Jay-Jay Okocha is my hero,” he said. “I just loved his playing style and watched videos of him all the time when I was growing up. He’s a big hero of mine, as is Kanu,” Dele-Bashiru told Watford Official as monitored by Soccernet.ng.

Born in Manchester, Dele-Bashiru has represented England at Under-16 level, but eventually switched his allegiance to Nigeria a few months ago, having been qualified to play for Nigeria through his father of Yoruba descent.

“I’m very proud of my Nigerian roots,” he said.

“It’s a great honour to play for my country and show everyone that Nigeria is a great breeding place for talent. It’s a massive country and we have massive support. Everyone there is a football fanatic so the country will be behind us during this tournament. We have got to make them proud.”

Nigeria is at the verge of elimination from a tournament they won four years ago, following their opening day loss to Ivory Coast. A chance to earn their first points is presented against Zambia, a must-win encounter if they are to get out of a group that includes South Africa. The top three teams in the eight-team tournament will qualify for Tokyo 2020.

The 20-year-old midfielder is not unaware of the magnitude of the task ahead.

“It’s a big tournament as if we qualify, we get to go to the Olympics,” Dele-Bashiru said.

“I’m really excited as it’s a massive competition. There is high expectation to do well and qualify. It will be really disappointing if we don’t qualify. We won it four years ago so we’ve got a lot to live up to. We’ll try our best and hopefully that will be enough.”

“The Under-20s is a good team and most of the lads are from that team,” said Dele-Bashiru.

“I haven’t been with the 23s before, but it looks like a team of very good individual players who work hard together. We’ve got a few guys from Europe so it’s exciting.”