NFF to step up pursuit of Michael Olise after France leave him out of their Euro 2024 squad

NIGERIAN Football Federation (NFF) football officials have announced plans to step up talks with Crystal Palace playmaker Michael Olise in a desperate bid to get him to play for the Super eagles following his omission from France's Euro 2024 squad.

Olise, 22, is a mercurial playmaker who is currently the subject of a tug of war between leading English Premier League clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. At international level, he is eligible to play for four different nations as his father is Nigeria, his mother is Algerian, he was born in France and he grew up in England.

Up until now, Olise appeared to be on course to play for France, having featured for their youth teams in the past. However, he was omitted from the French Euro 2024 squad despite having a brilliant season with Crystal Palace and NFF officials hope that they can use this to lure him to switch his allegiance to Nigeria.

Former NFF president Amaju Pinnick worked tirelessly to recruit Olise and his Crystal Palace team mate Eberechi Eze to the Super Eagles but was unsuccessful. New Super Eagles coach, Finidi George, emphasised the importance of following proper procedures in recruiting dual-nationality players.

Finidi said: “There are some procedures that have to be done. You don’t just see a Nigerian playing in one of these clubs and say let him come, it doesn’t work that way.

“There’s paperwork, procedures, you have to speak to these players and that is not my job. We have people at the NFF that have been doing that in the past and in the future, they will do that.

“Our job is to watch, and when we see a good player, the people that know the job properly and whose department it is, they will make that happen. If we see a player we know can help, we can bring on board, we will do that. We recommend, and the rest the NFF will take care of."

Eze for his part has been called up to the England Euro 2024 provisional squad and has already played two competitive, so is considered a lost cause. However, Olise can still be recruited and make the nationality switch with global footballing body Fifa in time for the 2026 World Cup.