Rohr steps up his pursuit of diasporans with Maja, Billing and Odubajo all on his radar

SUNDERLAND teenager Josh Maja looks set to make his international bow for Nigeria in the run-up to the 2019 African Cup of Nations after accepting an invitation from Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr.

Maja, 29, who trained with the Super Eagles in London during their camping exercise in the run-up to the World Cup, has taken the English League One by storm this season with 11 goals in 18 games for Sunderland. He is now the second highest goal scorer in the English third tier and that has caught the attention of Mr Rohr.

Born in London to Nigerian parents, Maja is yet to be capped by any English youth team so will not be needing clearance from Fifa to feature for Nigeria. With a year to run on his current deal with the Black Cats he is rumoured to be on the radar of several top teams in England although Sunderland is pushing him to sign an extension.

Since taking over managing the Super Eagles two years ago, Mr Rohr has stepped up his pursuit of second and third generation diasporans, many of them with mixed parentage. Apart from Maja, he has recently asked the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) to cap Danish U21 midfielder Philip Anyawu Billing, who currently plays for Huddersfield in the English Premier League.

Tall, imposing and highly technical on the ball, Billing, 22, has already met with members of the NFF technical team in London. According to Mr Rohr, the talks went smoothly but he cautioned that since the player is eligible to play for other countries things might not be as straightforward as expected.

Mr Rohr said: “One of my assistants living in England saw him and spoke with him. There was a good contact but also we feel we have to be very cautious because the English federation does not want to lose these players and we have to understand that also."

Meanwhile, Brentford defender Moses Odubajo has recently opted to commit his international future to Nigeria over his country of birth, England. A versatile fullback, Odubajo, 25, has long been on the NFF radar and was first approached back in 2014 but club commitments prevented him from attending a training camp in Abuja.

He was the first choice on a list of potential targets for the then problematic Super Eagles right back position but he suffered a long-term injury which kept him on the sidelines for two years. Now his injury problems are over and he has figured for Brentford in seven of their last eight games in the English Championship.

Odubajo's  representatives, USM Agency, have assured that will accept an invitation to play for the Super Eagles if called up for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Seychelles in March 2019. Although Odubajo earned six England U20 caps, no paperwork is needed before he switches allegiance to Nigeria as all the games were international friendlies.