African Footballers Who Recently Switched Allegiance

African Footballers Who Recently Switched Allegiance. Seeing European-born African players playing for African countries is unusual, as they are stuck with which country to play for based on interest, and sometimes they consider other factors that will boost their value and more importantly getting enough playing time.

African is no doubt blessed with talented footballers, spread within and in the diaspora who are vying to represent their national team.

The sizeable Africans in the diaspora provide a pool of talents for both the heavyweight and the minnows countries from the footballing point of view, through colonial history and migrants links which have enabled many African players who are European born to be linked to their country of origin.

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A lot of these footballers may have at one time donned the jerseys of different national teams at the youth level U17, U21, and U23 respectively. But when it comes to the national team, it’s down to which country asks first in terms of convincing the player to play for the adopted country or country of origin.

On the other hand, the failure for such players to advance to senior-level may lead to a change of mind in other to represent their country of origin.

Here are Top 4 African Footballers Who Recently Switched Allegiance

Tariqe Fosu Henry: (England – Ghana)

The England-born Ghanaian descent was called up to be part of the Black Stars squad, for the first time following an overdue invite for their international friendlies against Qatar which they did win by 5 goals to 1.

Brentford announced Fosu will join up with the former African Champions, having missed the opportunity to join them in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, in preparation for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying double-header against Sudan.

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Fosu became the third player handed a late invitation to the Black Stars friendlies match. The Brentford forward who is born to Ghanaian parents in the United Kingdom is eligible to represent either England or Ghana at the international level.

The 24-year-old forward was called up to represent the English U18 team at some point, but following his meeting with the Black Stars manager Charles Akonnor, he opts to play for his country of origin.

The withdrawals of players such as John Antwi, Lumor Agbenyenu, and goalkeeper Richard Ofori Antwi due to visa issues, which worked in favor of Fariqe Fosu, alongside Caleb Ekuban and Joseph Paintsil.

The Brentford forward helped the Black Stars produced a fine performance against the 2022 World Cup host by scoring the first goal of the encounter.

Kevin Akpoguma – (Germany – Nigeria)

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim defender Akpoguma represented Germany at all levels of age-grade competitions, from U16 through U21.

He also captained the Germany U20 team at the 2015 FIFA World Cup in New Zealand, where they got to the quarter-finals losing to Mali via penalties following their 1-1 draw in extra time and also led his side to defeat the Flying Eagles of Nigeria in the round of 16.

Akpoguma recently announced his intention to switch allegiance and represent the Super Eagles at the international level, as such his application was worked on and got approved by FIFA.

Showing his commitment and also getting himself familiar with the team, he arrived at the Eagles camp on Tuesday from Germany, and eventually went on to make his debut in the match against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.

The center-back has only made three appearances for his club this season in the Bundesliga, and without a doubt, he would want to consolidate on his 18 league appearances for the ‘Kraichgauer‘ as the new 2020-21 Bundesliga campaign progress.

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Having made his debut now, more so with the German connection between him and Gernot Rohr, the Hoffenheim man would definitely look forward to subsequent invitation going forward.

Kingsley Ehizibue – (Germany – Nigeria)

Ehizibue was born in Germany to Nigerian parents, before moving to the Netherlands at the tender age of two growing up at Zwolle. He started playing football at local amateur outfit CSV’28.

The towering defender plays as a right-back for FC Köln, following a move away from Zwolle in 2019, and since he joined the German side he has garnered over 35 match appearances for The Billy Goats.

The 25-year-old was handed his first call up ahead of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sierra Leone by coach Gernot Rohr, which was postponed as a result of Covid-19 that broke out in March.

Having seen him play in the color of FC Cologne, the Germany born defender is a kind of player that can bring a lot to the table for the Super Eagles, due to his versatility on the pitch, and how well he bump forward to attack the opposing team. Due to his versatility, he’s equally comfortable playing at the right side of the midfield.

Top 4 African Footballers Who Recently Switched Allegiance.

Andy Delort – (France – Algeria)

Delort may be a professional footballer, but then he has also played beach soccer under Eric Cantona in 2009, in an amateur tournament in Sete.

During the beach soccer tournament, he was spotted by Laurent Castro who asked him to play for the French beach soccer team at the 2009 Beach World Cup, and he went on to score five goals in the qualifiers.

Two years later he was selected by the French football U20 team by Francis Smerecki to play against the United States. Thereafter, he was called to participate in the Toulon Tournament, but unfortunately, he pulled out of the team having suffered a serious injury in a league game.

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Of Algerian descent through his mother, the Montpellier forward expressed his admiration and interest in representing the Desert Foxes of Algeria in 2019.

Having made his interest known, the Algerian FA announced Delort’s inclusion in the final squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations hosted in Egypt. He made his debut for Algeria against Mali in a friendly match with a goal to mark his debut.

Conclusion

This set of African players won’t be the first and won’t be the last to switch allegiance from their European countries to play for their country of origin. As a matter of fact, the trend African countries are now following is to go out of their way to bring in talented players into their national team.

Top 4 African Footballers Who Recently Switched Allegiance. – Newshub360.net

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