Reading loanee Ovie Ejaria commits his senior international future to Nigeria ahead of England

READING midfielder Ovie Ejaria has indicated that he is willing to commit his international future to Nigeria’s Super Eagles at senior level despite sinning the U20 World Cup with England in 2017.

Purchased by Liverpool from Arsenal in the summer of 2014, Ejaria, 22, is currently out on loan to Liverpool for the season. Born to Nigerian parents in Southwark in southeast London, Ejaria is eligible to play for both Nigeria and England but having featured for the English youth team will need to go through a Fifa switch before featuring for the Super Eagles.

Under Fifa rules, if a player has represented one country youth level in competitive games, he will need to go through a formal switching process, which can sometimes take up to a year. In the past, Nigeria has been very successfully as attracting diasporans with dual nationality as the likes of Victor Moses, Ola Aina and Alex Iwobi all managed to make the switch without any hassle.

Diasporans who had never featured for the countries of their birth like William Ekong, Leon Balogun, Joe Aribo, Maduka Okoye, Bryan Idowu and Tyrone Ebuehi, were however, eligible to play for the Super Eagles straight away. A creative playmaker, Ejaria is considered an important part of the Eagles jigsaw puzzle, offering much needed creativity.