Former Arsenal striker Chuba Akpom says he is now prepared to switch allegiance to Nigeria

FORMER Arsenal striker Chuba Akpom has revealed that he is prepared to switch his allegiance to Nigeria from England so he can be eligible to feature for the Super Eagles in next year's African Cup of Nations.

Next summer, the 2019 Nations Cup will be taking place in either South Africa or Egypt after Cameroon was recently stripped of the right to host the tournament and Nigeria has already qualified for the continental fiesta. Akpom, 23, who currently plays for Greek side Paok having left Arsenal in the summer, has featured for England at youth level but says he now prepared to switch to Nigeria.

A close friend of Alex Iwobi, Akpom had gone out on six different loan spells during his time at Arsenal but since making a permanent transfer to Paok, he has found the back of the net twice in six league games. Over the whole season, he has played 12 matches so far and is hoping of becoming a regular in the starting line-up.

Akpom said: “Yeah definitely, it’s just a matter of getting game time for my club, scoring a few goals and getting some good performances in. Nigeria have qualified for the African Nations Cup so that’d be great if I get called up but my main focus is to put my head down and put some good performances down for my club."

Although he has represented England 40 times at youth levels Akpom said he is now fully committed to Nigeria despite initially snubbing overtures from the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) to switch allegiance to the Nigerian team. To change nationalities though, the NFF will have to send in a formal request to Fifa on behalf of the player.