The Nigeria Football Federation are trying to convince PSV Eindhoven starlet Noni Madueke to switch his nationality from England to Nigeria.
Madueke, 18, has represented England at youth level, in both the U-16s and the U-19s.
The talented youngster is eligible to represent Nigeria through his parents.
Madueke left Spurs to join PSV in June 2018 – rejecting Manchester United in the process – and impressed for their youth sides before making his senior debut last season.
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This year looks set to be Madueke’s breakout campaign after his stunning start in the Eredivisie and Europe.
Madueke has scored four times and set up four more goals in just 11 appearances. Only three of those appearances have been starts and he displayed his potential once again with a two-goal performance off the bench in PSV’s 4-0 win over Den Haag on Sunday.
Nigeria’s interest represents a dilemma for Madueke. While his form in Holland could earn him a promotion up the England youth ranks, perhaps to Aidy Boothroyd’s under-21s, Africa’s second-highest ranked nation want him for their first team now.
Nigeria’s readiness to fast-track talent has proved a successful approach and helped them persuade former England youngsters including Ola Aina, Alex Iwobi and Victor Moses to change who they represent at international level.
24 Comments
Wow he really looks like a talent.
Firstly ..Ajayi
Later Mukairu, then Olise and now Madueke u people no go kill Rohr for us. But this guy is good ..I’ve watched him live and I love what I saw.the rest is up to Coach.
Madueke has always been on the radar for a long long time….together with Fred Onyedinma. These are young natural attacking midfielders who could add a lot to what we have. But the penchant of our youth coaches for ignoring u17 players from overseas is making foreign born talents whom we could have gotten easily become a problem. They reject them at 16 yr of age saying they are not strong enough only for us to start chasing them for nationality switch 3 or 4 years after
@Dr.Drey… Why don’t we just announce that Nigerians should stop playing football in Nigeria and other corners of Africa so that we can fully focus on chasing every talent abroad? We don’t even need a league anymore in Nigeria… We have enough foreign borns springing up everyone… Let’s go chasing all of them afterall we no get shame… they will continue to use use to do boji-boji. A country that is adept at owing bonuses and match allowance to players…
@JimmyBall .. Does Nigeria have any functioning league currently ? NO
Is the league poor in Nigeria ? Yes it is extremely poor with zero management and infrastructure . so the best option would be to approach people outside Nigeria
Are the players approached by NFF Nigerian ? Yes because being dual citizen doesn’t stop you from being a NIGERIAN
Players with dual citizenship also deserve a chance to play for Nigeria and we need to stop hating on our own simply because this kids are born oversea . They are NIGERIAN just like everyone else and also deserve a chance at every level .
God bless Nigeria
@NA ME TALK AM… I agree with you, but my statement was wrongly chronicled under @Dr.Drey’s first comment… it is meant to come under his taunts quoted below:
“Hahahaha….. at just 18 years of age 3 starts out of 11 appearances in the colors of PSV Eindhoven, 4 goals 4 assists.
But they want to force a 25 year old forward who struggles to net 10 goals every season in all competitions (40+ matches) in Egypt. Selfish people with selfish interests.”
Most of your so called local talent (with questionable ages) fizzle out after 3-4 years. The moment they cross into Europe and start experiencing winter, seeing well paved streets and having 24 hrs power supply, they believe they have reached Eldorado and start raising shoulders. Within that period the foreign ones grow from being mere academy players to becoming key members of top clubs…..and you say we shouldnt chase them…? Where are all the “raw diamonds” NFF and Keshi spent over 1bn to train and expose back then…? What of the ones Oliseh brought in..? Where are all of them now….? Whereas Sone Aluko who had his debut way back under Amodu is still playing actively for Reading till date. Balogun who debuted under Keshi is still waxing stronger and getting better with age. Omeruo and Onazi who we thought were youngsters back then who will peak by now are already on their way down hill. And you say we should not open our doors to our foreign borns…?
If you like dont tell your friends in the state sports councils and the NFF/sports ministry to wake up and face their job of developing sports holistically in the damn country. Look at our national basketball teams (both male and female), they are now dominated by foreign borns, before when we used local “talents” we were always struggling to win Afrobasket, now with the foreign borns we now qualify for the World cup and Olympics at will. Go into athletics too….similar story.
The league is half dead and buried already, The last 30 man SE list, only Musa and Etebo are products of the league. Sit down there and be deceiving yourself with a system that operates on outdated precolonial structures, organization and run by incompetent administrators. Dont advise them to pull their socks off. Very soon we will have a national team with no products from the league and dominated by NIGERIAN players groomed by people who are taking development serious.
This one off me I don laugh tire
…@Dr.Drey. Your highlighted points are very cogent and core to the centre of our poor footballing and general sports culture. We must never cease to convass for what is right… if we identify foreign borns of course we should always throw in hat for the challenge to chase after them… but that is only a short-term solution. It’s just that if we do not put our footballing house in order starting now… getting this quality overseas borns and trained will always prove a daunting task for us… if they look at our structures and see nothing indegenously serious on ground… most will only rubbish and embarass us before the full glare of the world… we must organise our home front if we wish for a sustaining longterm solution to quality and competitive picks and representations…
The solution is for our age teams to play more games…its a calendar, play friendly matches with clubsides abroad, play friendly games with clubsides in Nigeria, invite them to play one or two games…obviously some of their calendars are tight and some of the foreign stars might not make it but playing more games allow integration
@Edoguy… Good talk! We can do what you have suggested but financial misappropriation and self-serving attitude of our football administrators will always stand in the way of quality longterm plans and proactivity like you have succinctly advised. Only when these players have been successfully groomed abroad that you see our administrators start reaching out using the hasty-call-them-up-now approach… Some of these kids have their hearts set to Nigeria because they know Nigerians will embrace them fully… but often they will be lured and atimes threatened albiet through subtle means into shunning Nigeria… You see how someone like Southgate is acting… Once a talent whom hitherto was not paid much attention by them spring up… they make the conditions so enticing and difficult for them to ignore… Sometimes they just panic for their careers and the need to avoid being maligned by their foreign national tabloids and public thereby making their career to stagnate… See the role Frank Lampard and Mikel Arteta played in pushing the likes of Abraham, Tomori and Saka against choosing Nigeria! It’s not easy brother but we must put in the fight to also appeal to them…
Hahahaha….. at just 18 years of age 3 starts out of 11 appearances in the colors of PSV Eindhoven, 4 goals 4 assists.
But they want to force a 25 year old forward who struggles to net 10 goals every season in all competitions (40+ matches) in Egypt. Selfish people with selfish interests.
Lol..don’t start
@Dr.Drey… Kindly permit me to use the ultimate question often applied to every player suggestion by your brigade… Please who is Noni Madueke coming to bench in our midfield or forward line?
@JimmyBall .. Based on current form , He’s more productive than all SE wingers . 4 goals 4 assists in 11 appearances shows that he can bench any of our wingers or forward line . ( It implies he contributed in 8 goals in total of 11 appearances ) .
Anybody that should be invited to the SE must be productive than our current players . Football is all about productivity and that is why people rate RONALDO and MESSI ahead of other legends in the conversation of GOAT .
God bless Nigeria
@NA ME TALK AM… good talk. It’s just unfortunate that it may be hard to convince him into switching allegiance to the NIGERIAN fold. I just hope Nigeria did not intially turn him down at U-17 level. What our coaches did to Akanbi and Ebiowei the last time discarding them for inferior home players whose slots were actually paid for may begin to even make these lads never take us serious. If you watch Noni Madueke’s interview, he sees himself as English first… usually these kids only refer to Nigeria as their parents’ country. He, Madueke, just like the Reading kid, olise may have to kiss us goodbye as their allegiance may firmly be to England and France.
@JimmyBall I don tell you many times say, no dey waste your breath on @Dr Drey and his Co-horts. they will see your point but counter with their stupid Reason. @Na Em Talk am just said that Noni Madueke is better than all our current wingers meaning he is including Samuel Chukwueze and Chidera Ejuke to that list. When in Spain Samuel Chukwueze is regarded as the Best Prospect in the best league in the world. Shows how much sense they have. Mcthew nonsense!!!
Looks good to me. Pace, dribbling, passing, intelligence, good crosses into the box. Kudos to NFF. Not the finished article, but has immense potential. I like the fact that although he is a lefty, he can also use his right foot when necessary. Unlike some wingers whose right foot is only for standing, lol.
The guy is born and raised in England, so our chances are perhaps 50-50 on this one. If he accepts, he will be a good addition to the squad.
For me, discovery of new players is a good problem to have. Let Rohr look at all of them, and select the best based on current form. The idea should be that if you are not selected, it does not mean you are out of the SE. As long as you are fit and in form, evidenced by regular appearances for your club, you will always be in the pool from which players will be selected. It is left for you to raise your game, and force Rohr to include you in the squad.
Having wingers like Ejuke, Lookman, Chukwueze, Mukairu, Kalu, Dennis, Moses Simon, etc, all fit and available for selection, is that a bad thing? Let us continue to discover new talents. If they look capable of adding value to the squad, then they should be brought to Rohr’s attention, and then Rohr can decide to move forward with them, or leave them in the selection pool for future consideration.
We should work towards having a sizeable selection pool of players from which to select from. If we have 50 players in the pool for example, and 25 are selected, those not selected are still in the running. They just have to keep working hard and be ready to take their chance when it comes.
Wow!!! Just saw the highlights of this boy, he is the better and stronger version of Alex Iwobi, You can’t get him off the ball so easily if you would and he is naturally good a forward thinking midfielder who has gut.
Uncle Northgate is chilling with a cup of coffee waiting for Nigeria to make a move.i want him to come,but i doubt if he will for now.
With kalu and moses simon out of the qualifiers, who should start on the left side of the midfield. Should it be iwobi, ejuke or dennis?
Definitely Ejuke
Every Nigerian should stake a claim for the jersey. Including Madueke and calvin bassey. The best players should play for the SE. If Jamilu collins is not playing well for a top club, drop him!!!