Punch How Belgium pressed me to dump Eagles —Imoh MARCH 7, 2014 BY AGENCY REPORTER Ezekiel Imoh Newly capped Super Eagles and Standard Liege of Belgium striker, Ezekiel Imoh, has revealed how his father influenced him to play for Nigeria despite the pressure he got from Belgians to dump the country and play for them. Imoh who spoke to the Super Eagles Media Officer, Ben Alaiya, in Atlanta, United States during the international friendly match against Mexico, said he was actually approached to fast-track his Belgian citizenship papers. And he actually wanted to go along with their suggestion. He said, “Ordinarily, it takes three years of stay in Belgium to apply for citizenship but after two years I was called up to get the papers and I was really excited by the offer. But when I called my dad back home in Nigeria, he told me not to because they were only luring me with it so that I could play for Belgium. It took a long argument between both of us on the matter but at the end of the day I had to reason with my father.” The striker, who made his international debut in a goalless draw against Mexico on Wednesday, said the Belgian football authorities wanted him in their junior team immediately to prepare him for the future, but pressure from Nigeria was also huge and that forced him to settle for the Eagles. “I was encouraged then to join them because more than half of the Belgium national team players are not original indigenes of the country and I thought I could be one for the future but that has changed now that I have played for Nigeria.”
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 04:53:42 +0000
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