Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori has revealed that Nigeria never made a concerted effort to convince him to switch national allegiances prior to his international call-up for England.
The 21-year-old was selected in Gareth Southgate’s latest squad for Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria earlier this month.
Tomori’s parents are of Nigerian descent while he is also eligible for Canada having been born in Calgary, representing them three times at Under-20s level.
His breakthrough into Chelsea’s first-team under Frank Lampard this seasson sparked a scramble to secure his international future but Tomori insisted he had no contact with Nigeria prior to accepting Southgate’s call.
“England called me up in September, and I didn’t get a call up from anyone and when they called me up, it was hard to say no to them,” he said.
“But I enjoy Nigerian music, I’m Nigerian, it’s my culture and I’m very proud of it.”
Tomori will look to continue his fine form as the Blues travel to Burnley on Saturday aiming to extend their record of six consecutive victories in all competitions.
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COMMENTS
Na lie you lie,
Looking for a way to get invited to SE? When perhaps u know you will be a bench warmer in three lions, now you realised you have a Nigerian culture, yeye boy!
Don’t mind that ewu. I’ve been following this site forever, enjoy reading comments. I was forced to comment for the very first time due to this mumu guy. Pls we don’t want him, England wanted, stay wit dem. We love our eagles like this
Lie kill you there. stick wit England and continue to chop bench. we are okay here. Mumu boy
Nff should give him another chance. It’s not too late bro!
Nah that’s an insult to Nigeria. Let him stay wit England. By the way, complete sport why una dey delete my messages nah? Abi Tomori don dey pay una?
No o, what is the meaning of that? The guy will would still have said no to us knowing that the english team will come for him. Please don’t let him cause confusion here again. When you give him second chance, he will still be asking for third chance. No chance available at the moment.
I learned they are doing that already. Don’t we need this dude in SE? If you ask me we do.
na true jor, with all the news gone round, i never came across news of pinnick or rohr contacted tomori, only goal scoring tammu. good for nigeria as we loss this best defender. and our problem is defence and they kept tammu father, tammu mother, tammu sister every week end. if we keep prioritising on only goalscore players, am sorry we wil never move forward. now we have start overlookin ejaria the dribble demon, and make it too late. qp
You obviously don’t follow other sites. I read owngoalnigeria.com that Rhor approached him but he said time will tell. Time did tell only after just two weeks when England called Him.
It is simple, Tomori; you don’t have to say that to us now. Seyi Ojo wanted to play for Nigeria, and he announced it to everyone. You choose England over Nigeria. You enjoyed making the headlines for a while, and now that it is not happening again, you remember to tell the story that touches the heart abi? Well, the defenders we have now make it very easy for us to forget that you exist. Please enjoy your time with the Loins as Nigerian fans are now used to not talking about you again.
There is another Eze Ebere who is asking for time to decide, the next thing you will hear is that no one talked to him about it. Miss it and let me understand that we didn’t speak to you. The thunder that will fire you is still at the embassy looking for visa to your location.
“The thunder that will fire you is still at the embassy looking for visa to your location.”
Bros, you have won the internet for today
Hahaha!!!! bro i sight u Baadt guy!!!
“….The thunder that will fire you is still at the embassy looking for visa to your location….”
You deserve a national award for this…..!!! LMAO
Hahahhaha…..him don dy see the signs already. U wan find ur way back to the eagles abi? E no go work for you. Stick with the lions!!! Lol…big fat liar. We no want u again o!!!! Anuofia
How did you expect Nigeria to push? you were expecting us to come and be rolling on the floor begging you. that will not happen, we have good players that are even better than you. the decision have to come from you first, and you were not willing to switch. it’s too late. stay where you are as a bench warmer.
Bobo should continue enjoying the Nigerian music and the culture o but not a taste of the green and white jersey of our darlings Super eagles o. His he not a quality player too big for Nigeria?? Just stay with your England o, there’s no need to turn back bro.Arrant nonsense, so you need be pushed really hard ….I just dy laugh
https://owngoalnigeria.com/2019/10/25/exclusive-qpr-ebere-eze-ask-for-more-time-before-committing-his-future-to-nigeria-after-talks-with-rohr/
This Eze Boy think that we Have time to wait after he first receives u21 call up, complicating issues as at when his switch of allegiance back to Nigeria would be ready_ what Eze Fail to understand is before that 2years when he would finally become that English Big Star!!! he’s dreaming of, Nigeria would have unearthed another Gem.
Our Country is a Big Mess Yes we know but Football is that one Glorious Aspect we Can cling on to find succor, Reason why God has never denied us Good pain Relieving Talents scattered both Home and abroad, forget about Population.
Ol boy, you don miss road. Your brain no wok. To tell you true, eebi like lizard brain you get.
Prefer to be a second class citizen? It’s your choice. There’s no space for you in the SuperEagles. We don’t want BENCH WARMERS.
Almost forgot. Since you still have some connection with Naija, hurry up and order a bottle of palm oil. You’d need it badly—to massage your sore ass as you warm the bench for England. Ewu.
@Achi This one na big time blast. Bro you don crackle and tackle my laughter ooo. He must make a public proclamation of his willingness.
Where is Omo9ja oooo
Come to think of it, he said NFF “NEVER” Now that is A very strong word from a player to an association.We really need to be assertive about this . I’m aware thatTammy Abraham was The focal point of NFF due to pinnuck knowing his parents and yet he denied Nigeria twice. Tomori came into tjw blues due to Chelsea having issues concerning buying players as result they were suspended for 2 seasons . Thus making the team to get back the players they loaned to other clubs .
You know , it’s also left for him to decide if he still wants to plqy r or SE. But how when Rohr has said that both him and Abraham are not in his plans. Which is tough . Let’s just see how everything goes.
Dessers wants to play for Nigeria . Let’s see what he can do .
Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has however ruled out the chances of that happening insisting that his team have moved on from Tomori since he made public his decision to play for England.
” He pick where he is comfortable and we wish him all the best with England. No point thinking we can have him back as it will be dangerous if we allow players view our team as second option when all fails, I think we are bigger than that. I hope he succeeds with England “, Rohr said.
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In fact, if the story is truth..
We don’t need Eze anymore!
He should be happy the 9ja contact him, not given us condition to wait for time.. am very angry hearing this..
Abeg! if that thunder finished with Tomori, make em wait for Eze..
Bomboclat Boi!
@Gideon please call that uninformed fellow Where not Eze so we don’t mistake him for our darling Chukwu Eze
* Ebere
Guys please forgive the young man, England fa, Southgate, and Lampard misled the boy. It obvious the boy and his parents are not students of history. Let’s give the boy a second chance. Tammy Abraham case is now becoming a case study for other young Nigeria players, the policy of one game use and dump is real.
…and just wen u think our English boiz have learnt or are learning that scatter scatter dada named Eze is speedily plying through the same route.
~Journey Mercies o~
As for Eze we can’t wait for him, we have Ejike as a better option. Rohr pls invite ejike.
If we give him a second chance the SE will be taken for granted and our national pride will be smeared that we accepted an English bench warmer into our National team. So no matter how good he is let’s ignore him and use the notion “when opportunity comes seize it with hunger” which he failed to do so it will be in history he chose to be a bench warmer instead of being a core player of a new Nigerian SE so he will have stories to tell his children and even grand so second chance will mean we are playing second fiddle status to the 3 lions with open admittance it’s a shame he didn’t look before leaping
Tomori or whatever is his name should fill an application to switch to SE , with two references and mail to the glass house in Abuja, call coach Rohr personally and we will go from there.
And pls CS don’t publish any news on these renegades anymore.
Be warned. LOL….
Please Nigerian we shouldn’t be too harsh on this lad I believe this lad is saying the truth there is different between just contacting someone who has lived all his years abroad and really pushing for him to come play for Nigeria . If we really wanted the guy in the past Nigeria should have showed interest in him like they did to Tammy the truth of the matter is that nobody was even aware of his quality until recently when the transfer barn on Chelsea promoted him to like light and then he was already in the limelight of England coach because they know NFF will poach on him . If NFF had spent quarter of commitment they spent on wasted on Tammy on this guy I think he would play for Nigeria but Picknic wanted Tammy at all cost because his dad is a friend and properly they came from same place. Secondly for a guy who wasn’t born or grew up in Nigeria it’s that not easy to just play for us unless there is a close associate that can tell them that Nigeria is not really as bad as being painted. The image of this our great country needed to be polished well , thanks to the music industry that has gradually taken the lead to color the country well. Brazil is loved through the world for one thing which is football period that’s why Government in Nigeria should also sit up and really develop and rebrand our football for the outside world to recognize and love us. So please brothers and fathers in this forum let’s give this dude another chance for him to say he loves Nigeria music means a lot. We didn’t really pushed for him in the past probably because he is not a striker banging in goals .
As regards Ebere that shunned the earlier invitation if it’s true I watched his game against ojiara and I think that guy ojiara will be better addition in the super eagles Ebere to me is lazy although he is skillful but we need to watch that guy Ejiara in championship.
God bless you for speaking out.
I believe SE handlers and NFF didn’t do enough to contact this guy.
This Tomori you are defending played Rohr and the whole Nigeria as if we are fools. Rohr said he contacted him and he said he will need time to decide on his international football while he had actually made up his mind. Few days later he accepted England’s call and was jubilating all over the media. what did he expect? how do we push for him? we should start begging him rolling on the floor abi? It’s clear the guy is a liar and if he is not man enough to openly admit his mistake, the same way he was jubilating all over the media when Englnd called him, then it will be a very stupid decision on the part of NFF to go after him again. If he wants to play for Nigeria now, he should start talking in riddles, playing hide and seek. The truth is that he can’t even walk straight into our first team. There are people far ahead of him in hierachy. The fact that he plays for Chelsea does not make him a better option for SE.
# he should STOP talking in riddles
Like seriously?? So we should have been rolling ourselves on the floor for him to know we were serious.Was it not the same process we apllied and lured the likes of iwobi, ebuehi,aina, aribo, balogun, ikeme and the rest of them? Truth is, he never wanted to play for Nigeria, that was why he was hiding in the dark, secretly waiting for a call-up to the English team and swiftly jumped to twitter to voice his excitement when he eventually git the invitation. That boy and his likes are very stupid. Do u wanna tell me that people like aina and iwobi never talked To him about playing for us? I said it here that they (him and Abraham) would forever regret their decision of snubbing Nigeria. This is just the beginning. Foolishness has got nothing to do with age. We don’t want again, period! The only good thing we can do for u is to serve u Nigerian delicacies and cool your music by davido and tuface while u spend ur time on the English bench, I think that’s a fair deal. Lol.
Even if he was invited , who would he bench, is it ajayi who had laboured for years for his chance in the team that should sit on the bench or it is Kenneth omeruo, or ekong.. Tomori you are not badly needed, even one German boy udondyi or so after rejecting us now wants us
And for those who were busy insulting Iwobi because they thought they have found one mercurial Ebere of a guy, I hope their eyes don dey clear now. We should stop insulting players who truly love our country because we thought we have found some so called stars that are supposedly better. The way some guys have been insulting Iwobi in this forum is very unfair.
I also agree he needs to step up his game in some ways but that does not warrant some sweeping statement people make about him. Did you see this guy in the last Everton match when he was played in the right position? I believe there should be room for CONSTRUCTIVE criticism but some insults we pour on these players sometimes is very unnecessary. Inasmuch as there is a lot of room for improvements, let us still appreciate what we have. my one cent!
Many of these so called foreign born players were just using Nigeria as a bait to get invited to the country of their birth
@Larry, what is your definition of doing enough to contact the guy? What did England do that was enough, that was more than what Niheria do? Guys, let’s stop eulogizing inferiority complex joor. The guy is confused, finish and klaar! And we do mot need cowardly confused people in SE. He simply joined Abraham in playing hide and seek. If he is not ready to declare his interest for us openly then he should get lost!
Sorry my bros where did you guys read about eze telling Nigeria to wait? I havnt come across that news. The news i read was the nff claiming they are in touch of him and he will be invited soon. As for tomori i wont blame him if nff didnt aproach him. How do u expect him to beg nigeria when he is born and raised oversea? For its nff fault.
I don’t wanna keep talking bout this mumu Tomori guy. (my mama say I be 9ja Boi)
My matter nah Eze,
make em go ask Jordan Ibe how far ooo.. we no get time to wait for any ooo
I read whatTomori Is sayimg and i really wonder whether he is this serious about what he just said . If iay recall , Rohr did push for him only for jim to say he’ll think about it. John Fasanu advices Tammy Abraham ( which also reflects to him ) to choose SE over 3 lions.NFF said they asked for his services along with Tammy . So what does one have to say.
On the other hand if we look intothe matter, NFF was eyeing Abraham. Due to pinmick knowing j and his family . Twice Tammy Rejected Nigeria over England. In which he’s of no use yo us anymore .
When we look at Tomori, his case is do different to the extent that had it not been for the suspension of Chelsea from buying players from other leagues , we wouldnt know about Jim . Of course Nigeria was imdeed interested.
Tomori needs to understand that he’s dealomg with a country that is also a world renowned football nation . He says he loves Nigerian culture , he should have done what Seyi Ojo, Joe Aribo even the Belgian Nigerian Derneby did by clamouring that they wanted to play fr Nigeria and for sure they are getting every chance necessary Aribo has showed his capabilities and re world knows him .
Tomori really fucked up . And if he is still interested in playing fr Nigeria, then he betrer lay down his pride and really say it now and let Nff take note .
Fr the where dude I don’t want us to flex our muscles over him if he too wants to follow suit like Tammy Abraham his buddy . T he re are players who are easy to come to SE. The Liverpool boy Eharua should be looked into . Ramon Azeez is an experienced Central midfielder who should give iwibi a rum for his money in that position . Iwobi needs more work I’m that department….
If Tomori was actually making this statement for him to be given a second chance by the NFF then i’m afraid because those cartels over there got some huge Ego considering the way they never considered the likes of Nedum Onuoha, Dominic iorfa, Jordon Ibe, Felix uduokhai, Ehizibue etc after turning them down @ d first invite. Anyway time is on the side for a lot of this Lads, meanwhile I Call them #Men anayo Eze ha na a consider 1!!!
I don’t understand what’s going on here. Is eze a superstar ? How many player of the week/team of the month/team of the season has he been nominated for ?
I would choose Iwobi or Ejaria ahead of him anyday.
Efe Ambrose, a team mate of Tomori @Darby, said is people told him Tomori is from Nigeria.. He(Tomori) never shows anything of such, on like oda 9ja born.
F**k Tomori, he can’t deceive me!
More options:-
“I want to tell you that the President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick is working assiduously to make sure he brings Bukayo Saka to play for Nigeria,” Sanusi was quoted as saying to Sportinglife.ng in Abuja.
Well…the door on Tomori has already been Shut by Rohr…”Nigerian Team is to big to be plan B” for foreign players.
Read it from “Own goal Nigeria”
some utube people wil just watch their utube eze, and start shoutin eze,eze,ezeh. is that lazy like iwobi eze better than ejaria? go and watch best of bakayoko, u wil think bakayoko is worldclass player. i dont know when fans wil graduate with their brain to know that watchin “best of player through utube does not determine the quality of player. watch them every weekend to their quality. iwobhi wil be bench in both club and country startin from next week, except i dont have eyes. bet me
We are not even sure if the eze news is true,, some are already insulting the young man.. Even if he requested for time how is that a bad thing to say.. This is their careers you have to take time to evaluate every decision to make.. A single mistake can ruin their entire career…
Whether you like it or not.. The eze boy is good watch is game well and if know soccer you should know that boy is talented..
My fear for eze is he has only a short time to decide whether Nigeria or English u23.. He should definitely be on England u23 list by next week if he doesn’t finally decide to play for Nigeria and he surely knows the consequences attached to accepting England call.. But let’s take it cool on the boy, he is probably having sleepless nights as we speak
With all due respect to the Hard work this boys have put into their career i don’t think a decision to choose playing under any Level football over playeing as Senior squad member with a Global soccer brand like 9Ja (like having deep thought which to play for between Enyimba and Bayernmuniche) is worth being confused about not to talk of Sleepless nights, we are talking high profile friendly games and senior World cup matches with the best the world has to offer even Gabon may never experience such yet a star like abumeyang chose to rep’ haba_
https://owngoalnigeria.com/2019/10/25/super-eagles-too-big-to-be-treated-as-plan-b-rohr-shut-the-door-on-tomori/
CASE CLOSED!!!
Tomori has made a very serious mistake.. You don’t rush into such decision as a dual guy.. The fact he posted on social media when he wasn’t even sure of getting time has worsen his case..
He would likely never get another chance with the super eagles as the team is blessed with so many options in his position. Others Should learn from him, he thought he would go into the English team and bench those who were there before him, thats foolishness, you don’t count your eggs before they hatch..
Now he is coming with the music story, oboy you have chosen England stay with them,,
Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has however ruled out the chances of that happening insisting that his team have moved on from Tomori since he made public his decision to play for England.
” He pick where he is comfortable and we wish him all the best with England. No point thinking we can have him back as it will be dangerous if we allow players view our team as second option when all fails, I think we are bigger than that. I hope he succeeds with England “, Rohr said.
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Apt! This Oga Rohr get plenty sense joor. Over to you Eze. If you mess this opportunity up we will wish you the very best with the 2 lions (since they invite you the their U23, you ain’t even “good enough” for 3 lions yet
It is very funny how Tomori overrated himself. In the case of Abraham, they fielded him for 5 minutes to destroy his international career. If they would not need him, they do not want Nigeria to use him. Yhay shows they still acknowledge his potential. But in the case of Tomori, he wasnt even good enough for the 2 last minutes in both matches, including the one they won by a very wide margin. They do not care whether he eventually plays for another country or not. That already explains how good England thinks Tomori is.
FAST TRACK
@Fastrack100
NFF orders Rohr to get QPR Ebere Eze:
“We have communicated to the coach (Rohr) after consulting our legal team.
“The boy can play for us without any approval from FIFA because he only played in friendly games for England U20.“
• The midfield gang of Ndidi+Aribo+Eze ll be
View image on TwitterView image on Twitter
289
4:37 PM – Oct 24, 2019
There is no need to clamour or beg Eze to be part of SE. He is not a super star, just an average player.
Pls let’s stop making this bench warmer to think that they are super stars whenever they post their issues let’s do as if we didn’t see them,
What shall it profit a player if he shall gain the whole money (by making “big money” moves, signing huge endorsements, getting fat contracts) and not getting noticed in international football?
Nff and Mr. Rohr should pls give us Ejiara and Eze this two midfielders will add quality and competition to our super eagles midfield. I thank our 4 quality midfielders we have now, Iwobi, Aribo, Etebo and Ndidi. They have push our super eagles to the top.
Uzoho
Okoye
Osigwe
Ehizibue
Ebuehi
Ekong
Awaziem
Ajayi
Omeruo/Udokhai
Aina
Collins
Indidi
Etebo
Ejaria/Azeez
Aribo
Eze
Iwobi
Musa/Denis
Chukwueze
Kalu
Simon/Onyekuru
Osimhen
Onuachu/Dessers
Others:
Ejuke
Olayinka
Ojo
Maja
Akpom
Okereke
And any other inform Goal keeper
Sorry..Balogun among others too
good list, but please remove eze there. uduokhai for omeruo or ekong.
henry for simon.
desser for onuachu
kele for olayinka
we need mikel agu incase we play defensively against big side. ejaria, aribo, iwobi all better than eze,
Naija Is Too Big For Plan B
Please can someone enlighten me of Utrecht striker Dessers how is he doing now. Can Rohr give him a chance in the super eagles. I think he can perform better than Paul Onauchu.
Cyriel Dessers currently plays for Heracles Almelo in Dutch Eredivise
So far he has scored 5 goals, 1 assist in 10 games for the new club.he will be playing another game tonight by 7:45pm