Nigerian football officials have declared that the Super Eagles’ base camp is not the proper place for scouts to sound out new first choice goalkeeper, Francis Odinaka Uzoho with offers of a summer transfer.
With the youngster having grown in confidence and value from two matches at the World Cup, he has become a beautiful bride of sort for eager scouts and agents, but an official in the Nigerian team said contract talks will not be allowed in the team’s camp.
Uzoho was a last minute inclusion by Eagles gaffer, Gernot Rohr in the Nigerian team for the Mundial, following the regular number one, Carl Onuoha Ikeme’s affliction with leukaemia.
Rohr’s decision to pick him as the new number one drew criticism from many pundits, who felt that a couple of games for relegated Deportivo La Coruna of Spain was not enough reason to take him to the World Cup, let alone handing him the starting spot.
Uzoho was initially expected to be Nigeria’s weakest point in Russia, but the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup third choice goalkeeper has done better than many veterans here to the extent that European clubs have started making enquiries about his availability from Deportivo.
However, all questions have been answered by Uzoho’s performance in the first two games of the competition, prompting some teams to consider taking him away from the Spanish second division league.
One of such teams is a newly promoted English Premiership side, which is said to have sent a number of their agents to monitor the teenager in the game against Iceland on Friday.
A Nigerian team official, however, stressed: “We need total concentration to succeed in this competition. Any team interested in any of the players should go to his agent or club instead of distracting us.”
