LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 21: Amine Adli of Bayer Leverkusen celebrates with teammate Nathan Tella of Bayer Leverkusen after scoring the team's second goal during the UEFA Europa League 2023/24 group stage match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and BK Häcken at BayArena on September 21, 2023 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lukas Schulze/Getty Images)
Despite being only 24 years old, Nathan Tella has a wealth of experience and is a well-travelled player, playing for Arsenal and Burnley.
England-born Leverkusen striker, Nathan Tella has explained the rationale behind his decision to play for Nigeria, Soccernet.ng reports.
A graduate of Arsenal’s prestigious Hale-End Academy, Tella could’ve easily chosen to represent the Three Lions, but rather, felt a strong calling to play for Nigeria.
Soccernet.ng earlier reported that the midfielder sent a “come get me message” to the NFF after declaring his intent to play for them. The player finally explains why.
“I feel like it’s always been a big part of my life. I was born in London and I’ve been in England all my life, but at the same time my parents and grandparents are Nigerian, so I feel like it’s the bright route to go down so I wanna do something that makes my family proud as well,” the 24-year-old said in an interview with OmaSports TV.
With core Nigerian names, Nathan Adewale Temitayo Tella, an attacking partner with Boniface, mentioned he’d been speaking with the two-time Bundesliga rookie of the month on how it feels like to play for Nigeria.
“I’ve asked him quite a bit and at Southampton I had Joe Aribo as well, so I spoke to both of them just to see what it’s like, but obviously, I’ve been with Victor and he’s been telling me what’s it like so if I get the chance I’ll love to play with him there,” he added.
With the Super Eagles squad stacked with impressive attackers, Tella believes he can be a part of them if he continues to work hard.
“It’s a very talented national team, but I’ve always liked a challenge myself. The reason I’m here is to push myself and challenge myself. I wanted to play with better players, and with the national team, you’re playing with the best players in the country. By all means, I want to get to know them, play with them, learn from them and then get the opportunity to improve,” the right-winger mentioned.
Tella opened his Leverkusen account in their Europa League 2-1 win at the Aker Stadion in Norway against Molde.
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Chukwuezie needs a challenge at the right wing. He's being too complacent and he needs to be pushed at both club and national levels. Chukwuezie, what have you done for us lately.... If Peseiro knows what he is doing, this is the right time to find a replacement and Nathan Tella is lurking and knocking. Same for Uzoho and the rest of them at the Goalkeeping Department. Imagine SE playing all their hearts out at AFCON only for our goalkeepers to divert harmless free kicks into the net (own goal).. That will be heartbreaking. We have been seeing this weakness in the goal keeping department for over 2 years now and I wonder what the coach is doing about this.
It's time for Nathan Tella to be invited to Super Eagles. He's a productive right sided midfielder and right winger unlike Samuel Chukwueze who has wasted our time for about 5 years now.
Tella is talking nonsense only wanted to use Nigeria to further his career and anyone who thinks chukwueze is doing the job has no clue ️♀️ about good football player
Chukwueze is more effective than Nathan tella .