Brentford's Michael Kayode turns down the opportunity of featuring for the Super Eagles

BRENTFORD defender Michael Kayode has turned down the offer of representing Nigeria at senior international level opting instead to feature for Italy the country of his birth for whom he has already featured as a junior.

Kayode, 21, has had a superb season with English Premier League side Brentford since moving to London in the summer from Serie A side Fiorentina for €17.5m. Born in Italy to Nigerian parents, the right fullback has already played for Italy at U18, U19, and U21 levels and has previously admitted that playing for the Azzurri is his primary dream.

However, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) have been keen to woo the youngster to play for Nigeria and several officials have already met with him in an attempt to secure his services. However, after giving the matter a lot of thought, Kayode has opted to fight for a place in the Azurri team.

Kayode said: “I will always give priority to Italy, even at youth level as I grew up wearing the Azzurri shirt. I hope to achieve this dream as soon as possible but I have no doubt about which path to choose.

"I have also had dinner with other Italian Premier League players and I felt involved even without being called up for the play-offs. For now, I’m only focused on qualifying for Europe with Brentford.

"We can aim to qualify for the cup until the end, so we don’t want to let our guard down. The Azzurri shirt would be an enormous achievement, unthinkable until a few years ago but I’ll think about it in a few weeks.”

So far this season, Kayode has featured in all but one of Brentford's games during the current campaign, showing consistency and versatility. This prompted legendary Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to urge the Italian FA to tie Kayode down and the defender himself confirmed that he had discussions with former Italian coach Gennaro Gattuso before the World Cup play-offs in March.

Brentford are currently eighth on the English Premier League table, two points outside of the top seven places, which indicates that Kayode will be playing continental football next season. In what has been a remarkable season for the Bees who have never played in a European competition in their 136-year history, they are now almost certain of qualifying for one of the Uefa Champions League, Europa League, or Conference League.