AFC Bournemouth winger Jordon Ibe is reportedly considering switching his international allegiances from England to Nigeria.
Ibe came through the youth set up at Wycombe Wanderers, before joining Liverpool and then eventually making the move to the south coast for an undisclosed fee believed to be a record for £15million.
Between 2012 and 2015 Ibe had been a relative regular in England teams playing for Under 18’s, 19’s, 20’s and 21’s.
The Liverpool Echo in February 2015 reported that Nigeria had ‘vowed to try to convince Liverpool starlet Jordon Ibe to turn his back on England.’
According to the Guardian this continued through to August 2015 when Nigeria coach Sunday Oliseh visited Ibe at Liverpool’s training ground.
Oliseh later revealed via Twitter that Ibe had decided against representing Nigeria.
Ibe later explained his decision by telling independent.co.uk in September 2015…
‘It was my choice and it feels the right choice for me, I was born here and have played in the younger age groups. I want to take it up to the first team one day.’
But over the past year the situation has reportedly changed, Ibe has left Liverpool and joined AFC Bournemouth and has not been included in recent England Under 21 squads.
Ibe is now reportedly willing to consider playing for Nigeria.
A source close to the Nigerian Football Federation has been quoted by soccernet.com.ng as saying…
“Jordon is willing to listen to what we have to offer.
“We are hoping he finds the project enticing enough to dump England where he is a youth international and play for Nigeria at senior level.”
Website owngoalnigeria.com have explained that if Ibe does opt to represent Nigeria then the necessities over paperwork will prevent him playing for Nigeria in the immediate future.
They report…
‘the whole process could take four months, which means he won`t be able to play in the upcoming friendlies against Egypt and Senegal, planned for January and March respectively.
Your Say…
kirsikka wrote…
Jordon Ibe fee
Going on reported fees only, his move was only the 25th biggest buy in the PL this window. I know there was a lot of muttering about it but as it’s now shown to be no more than an ‘also-ran’ fee, I think we can say the club called it correctly.
Now let’s hope he can fulfil his potential.
Read more: http://www.bournemouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=469324#ixzz4QwuPC0uh