Crystal Palace of England midfielder, Eberechi Eze has put missing out on The Thee Lions’ squad to the 2020 European Championship as God’s plan for his career, megasportsarena.com reports.
The former Queens Park Rangers’ dazzler, who trained with Nigeria’s Super Eagles in 2017, played non-binding games for England’s under-20 team before becoming provisionally cap-tied to his country of birth at under-21 level.
That came after the 23-year-old had a good debut season in the English Premier League, scoring four goals and providing six assists in 34 games – 29 of which he started.
Eze started two of the three matches played by England at the 2021 U21 Euro, scoring once in a 2-1 win versus Croatia, and he was approached by the president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Melvin Amaju Pinnick.
Dramatically, after delaying his decision over an open offer to switch allegiance to Nigeria, Eze was part of Gareth Southgate’s plans ahead of the Euros.
However, he decision to dilly-dally over accepting Nigeria’s offer appeared to snowball when he suffered an Achilles injury in training a month before the Euro tournament.
Later on, Eze discovered that he would have been included in The Three Lions provisional squad for the Euros in the changing room, but that came shortly after his injury.
Eze has now shot his mind back at the ugly chain of events, but the dreadlocks-wearing lad has taken it all in his strides, as he retorted: “I asked Danny [Young, Player Liaison Officer] if he could get my phone.
“He brings it and I see a message from someone from England. It wasn’t me being selected, but it was the provisional.
“The way I see it, if I was meant to be there [the Euros], I would have been there. God had another plan and He wanted to use this for whatever reason.
“I’ve just got to get my head around it. I realised this is God’s plan because you couldn’t write that. From where I’ve come from to this point now, this is far beyond anything I could control.”
