{"id":4176,"date":"2023-11-07T20:39:03","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/2023\/11\/07\/read_news-phpnid49316\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T20:39:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:39:03","slug":"read_news-phpnid49316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/2023\/11\/07\/read_news-phpnid49316\/","title":{"rendered":"Versatile Sunderland defender commits international future to Nigeria\u00a0ahead of U17 AFCON qualifiers:: All Nigeria Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsbody\">\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allnigeriasoccer.com\/..\/football_pics\/35828Okike.png\" height=\"240\" hspace=\"8\" vspace=\"8\" alt=\"Versatile Sunderland defender commits international future to Nigeria\u00a0ahead of U17 AFCON qualifiers\" align=\"left\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Allnigeriasoccer.com<\/strong> has been told that Sunderland youth teamer Calvin Okike\u00a0has decided to represent Nigeria at international level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Okike\u00a0also qualifies to represent the national teams of England but is uncapped for the Young Lions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 16-year-old is targeting a call-up to the Golden Eaglets ahead of the start of the 2025 Africa U17 Cup of Nations qualifiers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He has been described as a versatile defender who is capable of playing anywhere across the back four including centre-back and left-back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Okike\u00a0is one of the top young talents in the Sunderland Academy and has been tipped to sign a scholarship deal ahead of the 2024-2025 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 16-year-old will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of Super Eagles attacker Josh Maja and Sweden international Joel Asoro who rose through the academy ranks to make their first team debuts for the Black Cats.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Five-time world champions Nigeria are not competing at the upcoming Fifa U17 World Cup in Indonesia after they were knocked out in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Africa U17 Cup of Nations by Burkina Faso.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Coach Manu Garba named dual national goalkeepers Daniel JInadu\u00a0and\u00a0Joseph Oluwabusola\u00a0in his squad list for the 2019 Fifa U17 World Cup hosted by Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ifeanyi Emmanuel\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<strong>Copyright ANS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nAll rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from allnigeriasoccer.com<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.allnigeriasoccer.com\/read_news.php?nid=49316\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Allnigeriasoccer.com has been told that Sunderland youth teamer Calvin Okike\u00a0has decided to represent Nigeria at international level.\u00a0 \u00a0 Okike\u00a0also qualifies to represent the national teams of England but is uncapped for the Young Lions.\u00a0 \u00a0 The 16-year-old is targeting a call-up to the Golden Eaglets ahead of the start of the 2025 Africa U17 Cup [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faca.com.ng\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}