According to allnigeriasoccer.com, Leicester City central defender Caleb Okoli is still eligible to play for the Super Eagles. On Monday night, Italy defeated Israel 2-1 at Bozsik Aréna in Budapest as part of a UEFA Nations League match. Okoli was not on the field for Italy. If the Vicenza native had been highlighted, even for a minute, he would have been forever bound to his birthplace.
Due to the fact that his parents, Paul and Tina Okoli, are Nigerian and settled in Italy in 1996, Okoli is eligible to play for the Super Eagles. He was given another opportunity to make his competitive debut for Gli Azzurri in tonight’s match against the Israelis after being left off the field against France last Friday. But his hopes of making his debut in September 2024 were dashed when manager Luciano Spalletti substituted Mateo Retegui and Mattia Zaccagni in the 86th minute.
Since joining Leicester City in the summer from Atalanta, Okoli has played little. He missed the first two Premier League games before playing through injuries against Tranmere Rovers and Aston Villa. In Spalleti’s defensive hierarchy for the September internationals, the Italian-Nigerian was behind Alessandro Bastoni, Alessandro Buongiorno, Federico Gatti, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and Riccardo Calafiori.
During his time coaching the Nigerian national team, manager Jose Peseiro expressed interest in Okoli. According to the Portuguese, he• assigned Ademola Lookman the responsibility of persuading the dual-national defender to commit his career to Nigeria. When the 23-year-old started against Malta in a European U19 Championship qualification in November 2019, he was provisionally assigned to the Italian national team. Ifeanyi Emmanuel
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