Manchester City loanee Tosin Adarabioyo is awaiting FIFA clearance to complete his switch of nationality, following his decision to represent Nigeria at the international level, reports Completesports.com.
According to reports from England, Adarabioyo has accepted to play for the Super Eagles despite previously representing England at youth level.
The 22-year-old, who was born to a Nigerian father and English mother has 15 caps for England youth teams.
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The centre-back, who is currently on loan at Sky Bet Championship club Blackburn Rovers is highly regarded by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola as an integral part of the future of the team.
Adarabioyo spent last season on loan at another championship club West Bromwich Albion.
This season, he has scored twice in 27 league appearances for Blackburn Rovers.
11 Comments
Great addition. God bless SE.
He’s right footed. We need a good left footed centre back. Still waiting for Felix Uduokhai.
This was handled silently. No media hype.
Nice one and lovely addition to the team.
I have watched him couple of times. His pace is lovely.
Tosin is all but set to represent Nigeria. If SE had a match this weekend. Tosin will get an invite and is eligible to play. Just like Kinglsey Ehizube, Tosin has only featured in friendly matches at U16 to U19 levels for England. He has not played 1 minute of any official matches (qualifiers or FIFA rated tournament) at any level for England. No complex paperwork involved. All that was needed from him was his commitment and a valid Nigerian ID…and to the best of public knowledge, both has been secured.
Notwithstanding, Tosin is an awesome addition to the fold. A guaranteed starter at Wes Brom and Blackburn and potentially at Mancity if their UEFA ban is sustained. A very intelligent ball-playing Central defender in the mould of the late Keshi and Leon Balogun. Unfortunately we have not had many of them in the last 2 decades. We can comfortably rest easy now if Balogun retires, knowing that we have Tosin and Semi Ajayi to fill in his role. Ehizube to a large extent can also come in handy, but its best to leave him in his most comfortable position which is on the right flank. The rest are more of the brute beasts who rely more on power and pace than positional intelligence. A combination of each of both styles often makes an ideal central defensive pairing.
So its safe to say “Welcome on Board Tosin”.
With the addition of Tosin, I think the SE defence is reassuringly taking shape;
Though I have always appreciated the level we have so far, and not taking anything away from their service to us but never been too comfortable with Awaziem at right back and Collins at Left back. I think they are both manageable to say the least but could always be upgraded upon. Awaziem is prone to errors due to slight forgetfulness in terms of positioning,rash tackles and his overlapping side not really top notch( all these could be forgiven due to the fact he is not a natural wing back). Collins could be good on his day but lack that consistency we need. I always feel his side is the weakest link at the defence, he is beaten too easily.
So with the addition of Tosin and Ehizibue,we can find room to bench the above duo. Ehizibue,given a run out in the right back role and hopefully,he brings his top speed expertise he shows at the clubside to the national side. I think he should be perfectly suited there been a natural wing back.
And with that,Aina can keep playing the left back role with Collins benched. And if things goes perfectly well, we can call in Zaidu,who I feel has been having a great season in Portugal and seems a better alternative than Collins,both in the attacking and defensive end.
Again this is not a “hit” at Collins or Awaziem, just feel we should try out better alternatives if they are available. We can only seek the best and keep growing.
But we would wait and see. We leave it all to the coach. For what is worth, it is always good news to have additional quality to the fold. It is all positive.
Well said @Drey but what about the goalkeeping department can you join the train to seek for the two Deles to be given a look in. Mr Pinnick if reading CS and if some of you are still okay with our present goalies then we might not see this two guys Dele ajiboye and Dele Alampasu this two lads are real talent when it comes to goal minding.
People forget that both Dele Alampasu and Dele Ajiboye were constant invitees under Rohr in the early days of his appointment before Uzoho burst unto the scene in the Laliga with Deportivo La Coruna. Infact Alampasu had his SE debut under Rohr. However while Uzoho (who grabbed his chance after Akpeyi messed up VS Argentina and) has gone on to maintain consistency for both country and club ensuring that he seeks loans to clubs where he can get gametime to play such as Elche, Anorthosis and Omonia, Alampasu has not seen league action for almost 3 years until he joined ventspils this year. There’s no way in hell a player will be clubless or inactive for so long and still get call ups even if he is 101 caps Vincent Enyeama. Now that he is seeing league action lets hope he maintains his current from which has seen him make the team of the week in latvia. He will definitely get his call up in due course. If there is anything peculiar with the current SE administration, it is the fact that If you play, you play….if you dont play, you dont play. If you play, just be patient and wait for your time once there is space, you get invited. The likes of Ezenwa and Akpeyi who are there at the moment have earned the right to be there. Ezenwa was the goalkeeper with the highest no of clean sheets this season in the NPFL (I stand to be corrected) before it was halted. Akpeyi is on the way to be named the GK of the Year in the PSL that has the National team goalkeepers of 7 countries including South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Guinea…and others like Belgium, Finland and Cameroon. He has kept almost 10 cleansheets too this season if not more. Not to talk of the fact that Akpeyi is benching 3 national team goalkeepers in his club currently. Ajiboye has always been in the CHAN teams alongside Ezenwa since the days of Oliseh and still Ezenwa beats him to the no1 spot all these while. We cannot invite 7 goalkeepers to the national team for 1 qualifier when only 1 Gk will play. And for now those who are there are doing their best. We have not had any goalkeeping howlers in the SE in recent memory so let everyone hold on, pray for their time to come and seize the opportunity when it comes. But as for who and who should get invited, that is the prerogative of the coaches.
Well said.
@Drey Good point I gave a like. But it doesn’t do justice to the fact that Uzoho and Akpeyi are still not our dream goalies….. We need talents like Vincent and Ikeme and these Akepyi and Uzoho don’t posses this safety feelings we are used to like when we had Vincent, not even against Argentina will I panic. Truth be told or am I wrong?
The thing is Enyeama set the bench very high and even Ikeme had big gloves to fill. I am not yet totally convinced on Uzoho but he is working hard. I really don’t know what happened to Alampasu but hopefully he starts getting it right. Remember Uzoho was no 2 to Alampasu in that 2013 U17 WC-winning team. Then there is Sebastien Osigwe in Switzerland. Not much is known about his current situation though
I think Bukayo Saka is the real deal for Nigeria at left-back. He will give Nigeria and Gernot Rohr the right balance we need in that position. We need another player in the mould of Celestine Babayaro and Kingsley Madu in the left-back.These guys can attack and defence since Nigeria is gonna be too good to be on the defensive,like we’ve complained about Gernot Rohr accouple of times.Saka will play there better since Nigeria is bereft of options at left back aside from the need improvement Jamilu Collins so to say.This is true since we have a lot ot attacker already waiting in the wings like that of Lookman,Dennis,Musa,Chuwueze,Kalu,Simon.Wow the list so long.Nigeria can be the number 1 with the right mentality, game strategy and tactical orientiation and match planning.