Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, is unhappy at the move of the Nigerian Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick, for Cyriel Dessers to pledge his allegiance to Nigeria.
Dessers switched allegiance to Nigeria to play for the Eagles at senior level despite been eligible to play for Belgium last month.
According to ESPN, a close source cited the case of Queens Park Rangers’ Eberechi Eze, who was approached by Pinnick and was well publicised in the media but the player refused to commit his future immediately to the Eagles.
“There are very influential people who do not want him to switch allegiance. That is why it is important to handle these discussions discretely. (Eze) has a Premier League team looking at him, and a Championship team with promotion prospects also in the picture.
“But this whole thing (photo with Pinnick) could compromise that.”
“There are over 450 players on the database, of that number, 65 are foreign-born but eligible to play for Nigeria.
“All of them are being monitored and most of them we have spoken to. But the process requires diplomacy and constant communication, and the timing must be right.”
“When we look at new players, we do it discreetly,” Rohr told ESPN when he was asked how long he had been monitoring the 25-year-old.
The likes of Alex Iwobi, William Troost-Ekong, Ola Aina, Tyronne Ebuehi, Bryan Idowu, Joe Aribo, Josh Maja, Victor Solomon-Otabor and Maduka Okoye are players of Nigerian descent that have pledged allegiance to the country.
Dessers is a proven goalscorer, as he scored 22 goals in 36 league games for NAC Breda back in 2015 to propel them to promotion, and then joined Utrecht, for whom he scored nine goals in 32 appearances and five in 15 last season before joining Heracles.
This ongoing season, he has scored 13 goals in all competitions while also grabbing five assists for the Eredivise outfit.
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