The Gunners may have finished tenth on the premiership table and have fallen short of their last season’s all best position and the brilliant score sheet of Mikel Arteta; as good as these information’s are currently none of these come close to the Nigerian and the English than whose country gets the allegiance of Bukayo Saka. The Gunner had an illustrious season playing 39 games in all competitions, scoring 4 goals with 11 assists and 7 yellow cards, for a left wing-back we can begin to imagine why Gareth Southgate and Germot Rohr may go into loggerheads anytime soon if that’s not happening already amongst both football associations and Nations
Saka rose up the ranks of the young gunners as a left full-back and has since ventured into attacking mode, coming through the left side of attack and down the middle with breath tacking assists this season a conversion rate which has made attacking teammates including Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexander Lacazette bang in as many goals this campaign. Football Pundits and soccer analyst have suggested Saka fit in well in the three lions. Recent selections seem overcrowded with several experiences and reliable wing backs, let’s “box “ this from the Red and Green corners and scheme through the school of arguments to evaluate the possible occupants of Saka’s enthroned or “unthroned” positions.
Liverpool’s Alexander Arnold who crowned a successful club 2019/2020 season with as many display of skills and featured frequently in recent times for the England national team,
Leicester city’s Ben Chilwell, though injured at the end of the outgoing season, he stands solid featuring prominently in Brendan Rodgers team enough to earn him several calls up at Gareth’s team. Danny Rose though at Newcastle united currently, seem to have featured in as many friendly matches, that his experience at Tottenham would offer Gareth’s modus operandi. The national team Gaffer has always relied on experience rather than youth also has Kieran Trippier a world cup stalwart, regardless of his errors at Russia 2018, did enough for club and country at the time for Athletico Madrid to make him an offer and has been the point left-back until resent times.
Bukayo Saka’s pundits have also looked at his dazzling runs upfield and assists to point at a possible right or left winger’s call up due also to the current dynamics of coaches and their formations, Mikel Arteta’s style of play seems to switch from a 3-5-2 and 4-3-3 which allowed Saka’s run and shoots at goal statistics to follow likewise. Hence the suggestion to play him upfront, how would that look like? especially when such supposed misdoing would mean no place for Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho, Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-odoi and Manchester city’s fastest man Raheem Sterling who also doubles as city’s highest-scoring player with 20 English premiership goals in as many assist all season and has seen many games since his world cup debut with the three lions. Marcus Rashford came back from injury to finish third with his United teammates and attack’s from the left wing for both club and country as Gareth Southgate will rather play a harry Kane as a centre forward.
Bukayo Saka remains a prolific English born player of Nigerian ancestry.
We are going to evaluate from the viewpoint of those who support that Bukayo Saka should play at the African Nations Cup, wearing the green and white colours of his ancestry. Initially, Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr was quoted to have confessed to fans who looked forward to seeing may never see Bukayo Saka play for Nigeria’s national team despite the youngster’s willingness to play for his fatherland, this quote was about twelve months old already and the Super Eagles coach would currently be singing a different blues, at a time when Nigerians are coming to terms with losing the Chelsea duo of Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori to the Three Lions, there are now fears to Nigeria that Saka may also be lost in the football maze due to paperwork, could this be a second-round knockout on Rhor coming too early by his opposing number? Reports have suggested that the Nigerian Chief Tactician to have alluded the uneasiness to invite players who have played already for England or other countries in the U-17, U-18 and U-20 categories.
One clear resolve of this apparent fight for Saka is the tedious and long processes the foreign host Nations put the ancestry nations through to access their rising stars, in retrospect it took Nigeria one year before Ola Aina’s paperwork issue was resolved and cleared by FIFA and he was eligible to play for the Super Eagles. Unlike Germot Rhor England manager Gareth Southgate is expected to assess Saka as well as Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood and Manchester City’s Phil Foden in the week in and the weekend’s when he attends matches since the lockdown began in March.
No doubt Saka is an asset to either nation just as other fast-rising stars, despite the fact that he acknowledged the added value Saka could bring to the Super Eagles, the German coach is adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Born in England, Saka is of Nigerian descent and has represented England as a youth international at the U-16, U-17 and U-19 where he scored on his debut at that age level in a qualifier against Moldova in 2018.
He only recently scored his first EPL goal for the Gunners as the season came to a close and words circulating in the rounds that the England manager Southgate might hand him a call up ahead of the forthcoming Nations League games in September against Iceland and Denmark
Whereas Rohr for the umpteenth time said recently that Nigeria would not be begging any player to star for the Super Eagles under his watch. It’s almost a resolve in recent times that players who have deputized for the super Eagles have reached out to the NFF or called the technical team headed by Rhor “such players like Alex Iwobi, Ola Aina and Joe Aribo are the consequence of such principles, “It’s not the wise thing to beg them to play for Nigeria, we want players who are committed to making Nigerians happy,” noted the 67-year-old is one of his interviews on the subject.
Written by Ben Omage
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