The Liverpool player Sheyi Ojo is not the first player, nor will he be the last, with Nigerian descent to weigh his options when it comes to playing international football. He was born in the UK, to Nigerian parents. He has played for England at all junior levels including the U-21 squad but is now considering playing for the Nigerian senior team.
The talented winger first joined the Milton Keynes Dons at the age of 10 and during his three years there, he earned his first England U-17 cap. At the age of 14, he was snapped up by Liverpool even though a few high profile teams were an option. He spent the 2nd half of the 2014/15 season on loan to Wigan and the first half of the 2015/16 season on loan to Wolverhampton. In the early part of 2016, he returned to Liverpool and played in eight Premier League matches and three FA Cup games. He scored his first goal for Liverpool against Exeter in the Cup. Later that year, he played in his first Premiership match and then had his first start in the game against Stoke where he notched an assist in a 4:1 Liverpool win.
Sheyi Ojo (www.liverpoolfc.com)
In August 2017, he went on a season-long loan to Fulham where he played in 24 games and scored four goals. At the start of the 2018 season, he again went out on loan, this time to a French Ligue 1 team, Reims.
When asked about his future, Ojo said he would never turn down a call from Nigeria if it came before thinking about it. His obvious progression would be to play for the England senior squad, but he wouldn’t be the first England born youngster who ended up choosing to play for the Super Eagles. Players like Victor Moses and Alex Iwobi both did just that.
Ojo said that his parents would like for him to play for their country of birth and he would be proud to do so if he gets a call from head coach Gernot Rohr. So far, there haven’t been any official calls and Ojo states that he is currently concentrated on club football. He is not limiting his options, saying that it would be an honour to play for Nigeria or England. His last matches for the England U-20 national team were in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea last year, where he appeared in five matches.