The holding midfielder issued a statement recently denying he was looking to switch his international allegiance from Denmark to Nigeria
Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has confessed that he chatted with Philip Billing about the Bournemouth’s star playing for the three-time African champions.
But the German gaffer insisted that the holding midfielder reached out to him (Rohr) first through his (Billing) representative from whom he collected the player’s contact details.
But contrary to what the 23-year-old told the public, Rohr revealed that the former Danish youth internationalal confirmed that he was interested in playing for Nigeria, the country where his father was born.
“There was one problem with Phil Billing. Billing’s agent called me and said he’s interested to play for Nigeria, because he’s not playing so much, only as a (unused) substitute for Denmark,” Rohr said to Colin Udoh in an Instagram conversation.
“So he wanted me to call him, I said I didn’t have his number, so he gave me Billing’s number.
“He (Billing) asked me some questions about Nigerian team, and he said I’m very, very interested to play for you, but give me some time’.
Billing is yet to make his senior debut for Denmark despite making the substitute bench on six occasions.
And Rohr is convinced that the youngster’s agent is merely using the publicized Nigerian interest in Billing to push for his international bow with the Danes.
Rohr added: “I think the agent is using a little bit the interest from Nigeria to give him more chances to play for Denmark.
“Sometimes you can have these deceptions and disappointment,” the Franco-German coach concluded.
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