{"id":10093,"date":"2019-05-13T17:26:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T17:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=10093"},"modified":"2019-05-13T17:26:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T17:26:23","slug":"why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles","title":{"rendered":"Why Ex-Newcastle Star Won&#8217;t Get Nigeria Call-up Despite Pledging Allegiance To The Super Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Newcastle star striker Sammy Ameobi joined the Flying Eagles of Nigeria in 2011 and he was given some game-time in two friendly games against Saudi Arabia and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>Just when Nigerians thought that they had captured the services of a foreign-born player, Sammy surprisingly turned his back on the West African team when he honored England&#8217;s call-up to their U21 team.<\/p>\n<p>He made his England debut in the same year as he was utilized against Iceland and Belgium U21 teams during the European U21 Championship qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p>Sammy went on to feature in five matches for the Young Lions of England but he couldn&#8217;t progress to the Three Lions team.<\/p>\n<p>Some years after his England debut, Shola Ameobi&#8217;s younger brother decided to re-commit his international future to Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Sammy is nowhere close to recording his first Super Eagles appearance due to some reasons, which are discussed below.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s Currently Out Of Form<\/p>\n<p>The striker cum winger isn&#8217;t the same player he was during his days with the Magpies, no thanks to his immense dip in form.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old played a total of 30 Championship games for Bolton Wanderers during the recently concluded season, and he managed just four goals.<\/p>\n<p>Rohr Has Better Options<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria is blessed with numerous young talents, hence, Rohr has no reason to force an off-form player into his team ahead of AFCON.<\/p>\n<p>Odion Ighalo, Victor Osimhen, Paul Onuachu, and Taiwo Awoniyi are in the best form of their respective careers, therefore Sammy&#8217;s chances of playing for Nigeria are very slim.<\/p>\n<p>Age Is Not On His Side<\/p>\n<p>Sammy is in his late 20s which signifies that he is not getting any younger and his hope of emulating his elder brother remains uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Newcastle star striker Sammy Ameobi joined the Flying Eagles of Nigeria in 2011 and he was given some game-time in two friendly games against Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Just when Nigerians thought that they had captured the services of a foreign-born player, Sammy surprisingly turned his back on the West African team when he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":10094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[116,419,122,495],"class_list":["post-10093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-football","tag-player","tag-sports","tag-u21"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Ex-Newcastle Star Won&#039;t Get Nigeria Call-up Despite Pledging Allegiance To The Super Eagles - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Ex-Newcastle Star Won&#039;t Get Nigeria Call-up Despite Pledging Allegiance To The Super Eagles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Newcastle star striker Sammy Ameobi joined the Flying Eagles of Nigeria in 2011 and he was given some game-time in two friendly games against Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Just when Nigerians thought that they had captured the services of a foreign-born player, Sammy surprisingly turned his back on the West African team when he [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-13T17:26:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/2019\/05\/59495Sammy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"197\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"235\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"Why Ex-Newcastle Star Won&#8217;t Get Nigeria Call-up Despite Pledging Allegiance To The Super Eagles\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-13T17:26:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles\"},\"wordCount\":305,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/2019\/05\/59495Sammy.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Football\",\"player\",\"Sports\",\"U21\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-ex-newcastle-star-wont-get-nigeria-call-up-despite-pledging-allegiance-to-the-super-eagles\",\"name\":\"Why Ex-Newcastle Star Won't Get Nigeria Call-up Despite Pledging Allegiance To The Super Eagles - 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