Second vice-president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mallam Shehu Dikko has suggested that Elche of Spain goalkeeper, Francis Odinaka Uzoho will not be invited to the country’s under-23 squad, aka Dream Team, in order not to saddle the youngster will a distraction.
Although, at 20 year-old, Uzoho is still qualified to don Nigeria’s jersey at under-23 level, sports247.ng gathered that Dikko is against the former Golden Eaglets star alternate duties with the national teams.
Uzoho is already Nigeria’s number one shot-stopper in the senior team, Super Eagles, and Dikko believes it would be a demotion of sort for the keeper, who is on loan from Deportivo La Coruna of Spain, to drop one step on the international scales.
Though the like of Sunday Oliseh, Austin Okocha, Victor Ikpeba, Taribo West and Wilson Oruma stepped low en route to winning the soccer gold medal at Atlanta ’96, Dikko appears ready to lead a charge against same occurring with Uzoho towards the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Uzoho, who has played five matches for Elche this season in Spain’s second division, returned to training on Tuesday, after getting injured three weeks ago.
He had been tipped to join the under-23 Nigerian team for the African U-23 Nations Cup qualifiers next month, but Dikko wants him to focus on the Eagles and establish himself at club level.
Dikko stressed: “It’s a distraction that he doesn’t need. He is already first choice of the Super Eagles and has already played at the World Cup.
“Let him focus on his club career and establish himself. The coaches of the U23s will need to discover a good goalkeeper at that level.”
