Watford of England have extended their number of Nigerian players to a mammoth seven ahead of next season, following their signing of Dapo Mebude from Glasgow Rangers of Scotland, megasportsarena.com reports.
Mebude’s arrival at Vicarage Road comes hot on the heels of The Hornets ‘ signing of Oghenekaro Etebo on loan from lower division side, Stoke City, following his inability to get an extension at Galatasaray of Turkey.
Mebude and Etebo join forces with another new arrival, Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure at the former club of Odion Jude Ighalo, who also have William Troost-Ekong, Isaac Success, Tom Dele-Bashiru and Joseph Hungbo in their ranks.
While Hungbo is still growing through the youth ranks at Vicarage Road, all the other Nigerians are listed for the main team, which Troost-Ekong, Success and Dele-Bashiru helped gained promotion last season from the English Premier League.
All seven Nigerian players will now aim for better trappings with Watford this season in the EPL, even as an eighth member of the clan is being sought from Racing Genk of Belgium – in the person of Paul Ebere Onuachu.
The latest confirmation, though, is about the arrival of 25-year-old Etebo on a season-long loan deal, with an option to buy, as well as 19-year-old Mebude, who left Rangers earlier this month, also with a further two-year option written into his contract at Watford.
Mebude, who scored six goals in 23 caps across the Scottish Under-17,-18, and -19 teams, earlier enjoyed a loan spell at Queen of the South in the Scottish Championship early this year and scored twice in 11 league outings.
British all-football website, fourfourtwo.com added: “Etebo joined Stoke in the summer of 2018 from Portuguese outfit Feirense ahead of playing for Nigeria at the World Cup in Russia.
“He went on to make 45 Championship appearances for the Potters before having loan spells at Getafe in 2019-20 and Galatasaray for the whole of last season.
“The news about Etebo came after Watford had earlier on Friday announced they had signed Mebude on a two-year deal.
“Mebude is a Scotland youth international who came through the ranks at Ibrox before making his debut for the club in May 2019. He has also represented Scotland at under-17, under-18 and under-19 level.
“The teenager spent the second half of last season on loan at Queen of the South, where he scored two goals in 11 appearances.”
