“I was underage” – AFCON 2013 winner reveals why his move to Chelsea stalled

A lone strike from Sunday Mbah was enough to seal the AFCON 2013 triumph for Steven Keshi and the Super Eagles against Burkina Faso.

2013 AFCON-winning midfielder, Ogenyi Eddy Onazi, has revealed the reason why his move to English Premier League side, Chelsea, failed to materialize, Soccernet.ng reports.

Onazi, 31, currently plies his trade with Italian Serie C side, Avezzano Calcio, and has amassed over fifty caps for the Super Eagles. He was an integral member of the 2013 AFCON, playing every minute of the games in the knockout stages.

The former Lazio midfielder represented Nigeria at just 16 years of age, at the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup hosted in Nigeria as the Golden Eaglets lost the final to Switzerland.

After the tournament, the former Transbonzpor midfielder revealed he had trials at Chelsea, but he couldn’t put pen to paper with the London club due to age restrictions.

“I was going to sign for Chelsea, but my manager decided that we should go to Italy. When I was young, I almost signed for Chelsea, but we were underage and couldn’t play. We had to wait until we were 18,” the former Zalgiris midfielder said in quotes revealed by Ajansspor.

He also added that due to the longevity of the process, the Lazio move made more sense at the time, putting his development and playing time into consideration.

“There was a lot of process. That’s why my manager decided that we would go to Italy at that time, so we could start in Lazio’s second team and then, when we developed, we could get promoted to the team,” the 5-ft-2-in. midfielder added.

Onazi was not included in the Super Eagles AFCON 2019 squad after he suffered an Achilles injury that kept him out for almost a year when he was playing for his club in Turkey.