Nigeria have launched an audacious attempt to convince Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham to snub England and represent the Super Eagles at international level.
Abraham made his England debut in a friendly win over Germany in November 2017 before appearing against Brazil a week later but is free to switch as he has yet to play a competitive match for Gareth Southgate.
But Abraham, who has scored four goals in his last two Chelsea games, has told Nigeria that he will not give them a final decision until next April.
Amaju Pinnick said: “We will not relent in our quest for good players to pay for the country and win laurels. We will keep talking to good players of Nigerian descent to play for their Fatherland.
“But these kids are very independent minded. We have been told to wait until April 2020, when he hopes to make a final decision on the matter.
“I told him that he had a better chance of playing regularly for Nigeria than with England, which has a galaxy of strikers.”
Abraham won 25 caps for England Under-21s, scoring nine goals.
Previously, Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha in 2016 opted to snub England, despite coach Gareth Southgate’s attempts to persuade him, and decided to play for the Ivory Coast.
The forward scored twice for the Ivory Coast as they reached the quarter finals of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt this summer.
Abraham’s recent strikes against Norwich and Sheffield United have helped justify Frank Lampard’s decision to place faith in the Chelsea academy graduate.
And Lampard has revealed he has been helping the former Bristol City, Swansea and Aston Villa loanee to improve his game.
“I’m delighted with Tammy, delighted with his attitude,” Lampard said.
“He has a really great attitude in training and desire to score. His all-round game as well.
“We’ve been working really closely with Tammy on little bits of his game that can be even better.
“He is really receptive to that and I thought the performance was class, he was really unlucky not to have three.”
Next up for Chelsea after the international break is Saturday September 14’s Premier League showdown with Wolves at Molineux.
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