It has turned into a case of different strokes for two youthful goalkeepers, as Arsenal of England’s Arthur Okonkwo appears closer to getting a call up by Nigeria, but same cannot be said about SC Kriens of Switzerland’s Sebastian Osigwe.
While Osigwe has been rated very low in pulling off a switch from Switzerland to Nigeria at senior level, Okonkwo footablllive.ng gathered that will be a part of the Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles at the Africa U20 Cup of Nations next year.
Okonkwo is already an England under-17 international, but Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are eager to give him an accelerated promotion to under-20 level under Coach Paul Aigbogun.
The Arsenal under-18 team’s first choice in goal has already been officially approached by the NFF over a possible switch of allegiance, which has been backed by Aigbogun, who is British citizen.
However, while Oknokwo is now expected to give his consent to the NFF’s offer before this year runs out, Osigwe is not any closer to a call up to the Super Eagles, than he was when he made his intentions known before the World Cup.
Although Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr earlier declared that he is ready to invitee Osigwe, latest feelers indicate that he youngster will not be part of Nigeria’s immediate plans in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The former Flying Eagles invitee has kept goal in the six games his team have played so far in the Swiss second division this term, and are currently in 7th position, but he does not have a single clean sheet to his name and is not under consideration for the Eagles.
However, it was gathered that Rohr is keeping options open in the future for the Switzerland-born goalkeeper, who was in top form for Kriens in helping them get promotion to the second division.
