Getafe of Spain are bound to lose the services of Oghenekaro Etebo this summer, as the battling midfielder is set to return to his parent club, Stoke City of England at the end of his current loan deal, but Kelechi Nwakali is gunning for promotion to the Spanish LaLiga with UD Huesca.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, while Nwakali could become Nigeria’s next player in the Spanish top-flight, Etebo appears to be on his way out, as Stoke have added his name to their roster of retained players for next season in the English Championship.
That signals an impending return to The Potters for the 24-year-old Etebo, who has missed the last three games for Getafe in LaLiga due to a nagging injury, hence his inability to showcase himself against Real Madrid, Osasuna and Villarreal.
It might mean no further match for Getafe by Etebo, who is spending the second half of the season back in Spain, where he previously played on loan from UD Feirense of Portugal at Las Palmas, after shooting to limelight with Warri Wolves of Delta State and was part of Nigeria’s bronze medal-winning under-23 at Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
Getafe, though, still hold an option to make Etebo’s loan move permanent at the end of this season, having earlier considered triggering a purchase clause in his deal before the coronavirus pandemic; but Stoke appear to be in need of the dark-skinned midfielder, who found game time hard to get in the first half of the season, with only eight starts from a possible 26 in England.
On the other hand, former Arsenal of England fringe player, Kelechi Nwakali is making the best of his time playing in Spain’s lower division with Huesca, with which he is eyeing promotion back to the upper echelon LaLiga.
With promotion high on his mind, the Golden Eaglets’ winning captain at Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup has urged his teammates not to relent in their quest for a return to LaLiga and declared that they must bounce back from their 1-0 loss away to Racing Santander on Saturday.
During that game, Nwakali got off Huesca’s bench in the last 20 minutes and, although he could not save his team from losing, he declared emphatically afterwards that he and his pals have to forget the setback and shift focus to their next two games to confirm their promotion target.
Huesca are currently second on the log of Segunda Liga with 64 points, two ahead of third-placed Real Zaragoza, who dropped down the table following an abysmal return of six defeats in their last nine games.
First and second positions on the log automatically gain promotion to the elite division, while the third to sixth placed teams will go for a promotion play-off, from which the winner will join the other two in LaLiga next season.
Nwakali and his teammates will need to make the most of their home clash against Numancia on Friday before their final game of the season two days later away at Sporting Gijon; ahead of which the youngster declared: “Two games to LaLiga, eyes on the price, come on HUESCA.”
