Nigeria hoping to convince Tammy Abraham to switch allegiance from England

Tammy Abraham may be among the early front-runners of the Premier League Golden Boot race, but unlike fellow Chelsea youngster Mason Mount, did not get to join the England team this time around. Instead, Gareth Southgate called up Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson alongside the usual duo of Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford.

It’s precisely this sort of situation that Nigeria are hoping to exploit in convincing Abraham to switch allegiance, and take flight internationally with the Super Eagles. (Similar examples include Victor Moses, Alex Iwobi, or half of Jürgen Klinsmann’s USA sides.)

“We will not relent in our quest for good players to play for the country and win laurels. We will keep talking to good players of Nigeria descent to play for their fatherland.

“But like you know, these kids are very independent minded. In fact, we have been told to wait until April 2020, when he hopes to make a final decision on the matter. I told him that he stood a better chance of playing regularly for Nigeria than with England, which has a galaxy of strikers of the English stock.”

-Melvin Pinnick; source: Mail

While Abraham was born in London, he’s eligible for Nigeria through his father. In fact, this isn’t even the first time that Pinnick, who’s apparently friends with Tammy’s father, has courted the 21-year-old, who had already made clear his commitment to England in 2017. At the time, he was called up after a strong first season in the Championship and even made two senior appearances. But because they were in just friendlies, he remains eligible to switch.

If he continues to pour in goals for Chelsea however, those England call-ups won’t be too far behind.