Chuba Akpom switches allegiance to Nigeria
PAOK FC striker Chuba Akpom has committed his international future to the Super Eagles of Nigeria over his country of birth, England.
The 23-year-old, who had previously represented England from Under 16 to Under 21 level, will now await an invite to the Super Eagles in the nearest future.
It can be recalled that the former Arsenal forward trained with the Eagles in March 2017 prior to the game against Senegal at the Hive Stadium.
“I’ve only just recently switched my allegiance, so I’ve signed the documents and hopefully in the next few weeks it will be approved to enable me play for Nigeria,” Akpom told BBC Sport.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for many years now but not many people know this. It’s just been a matter of sorting it out, which is now in a process. I’m looking forward to it.
“It was a personal decision. I’m Nigerian and my whole family feel very Nigerian and it will be nice to represent Nigeria.
The 23-year-old can now look forward to reuniting with childhood former Arsenal colleague Alex Iwobi in the Eagles with the latter now an established member of the team having made likewise switch in 2015.
“It will also be nice to link up with Alex [Iwobi] again and play for the national team. We started playing when we was younger together and to make that step to play for the national team together will be amazing.”
Akpom made a permanent switch from Arsenal to PAOK in the summer of 2018 and has registered 11 goals and 5 assists since then for the Greek topflight side.
