八字万年历

Chapter 313: Life Changing Conversation II

“Hmmm,” Okocha nodded thoughtfully, thinking about how to present the current situation to Jason.

He was naturally not someone who liked going around in circles except for when he was on the pitch, so he preferred a direct conversation and hoped it didn’t backfire.

“I’m sure you’re well informed of the current state of the African national teams,”

” For quite a while now, players with African origins have been choosing to play for countries in Europe or other parts of the world as long as they are qualified to do so because of the advantages that playing for non-African teams brings,”

“You only have to look at the French or England national team to see what I’m talking about,”

” I’m sure you get what I’m driving at, but we’ve been disappointed by quite a few young talents that should be playing for our country going to pick another country,”

” There’s Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, David Alaba, Dele Ali, and other such players choosing other countries over us,”

” In fact, just this year, we reached out to this young guy playing for Arsenal, Bukayo Saka, but he chose to play for the England National team instead,”

” While we understand that we cannot offer those guys as many advantages playing for our country than playing for another nation, we still have to try as it’s a matter of national pride,”

“Despite having some of the best talents in the sports world, only a few trophies have ever come back to Africa, we’ve never even been considered major contenders for the World Cup since its inception,”

“This brings us to you. Currently, our national team’s head coach is working towards a vision of bringing honors to Nigeria at the international level,”

“It’s a bit far-fetched and there’s bound to be a lot of obstacles if we are to make that possible, but the first thing we can start with is building a winning team… And we see you as an important part of the winning team,”

“Nigeria is entering a golden generation in sports currently and we have many budding talents the likes of Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, Samuel Chukwueze, Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Ihenacho, Wilfred Ndidi, Bassey Troost-Ekong, Ola Aina, and your friend Zaidu Sanusi here, but so far its still not enough, and to keep building the team, we cannot afford any setbacks,”

“Gernot asked me a favor to find out if you have any intentions of playing for the national team as we cannot risk sending an official invitation and getting rejected again as it wouldn’t be good for morale,”

” So what do you say, boy?”

” Do you have plans to join the Super Eagles in taking to the skies, or do you have other plans?”

Okocha finished his speech with the million-dollar question and took a glass of water to moisten his mouth after saying all that, but his eyes stayed on Jason’s face, staring directly into his eyes.

“I guess you weren’t made the captain of the national team just because of your skills with the ball,” Jason muttered as he poured himself a glass of water as well, but Okocha just laughed off Jason’s praise.

Jason was actually quite impressed with Okocha’s conversational skills as the Nigerian national legend had been able to explain the whole situation while also riling him up a bit and getting his blood pumping.

“Well… what do you say?” Okocha asked again.

“Shit, where do I sign up?” Jason responded with a wide grin, internally shaking his head at himself.

“Ah wait, I hope I’m being invited to the senior national team and not the under-18, or the under-21 team. I don’t have any plans of playing with kids,” Jason immediately asked as the question appeared in his head.

“Bruh, you’re 18, that’s around the same age as those ‘kids’ you mentioned,” Zaidu rolled his eyes, but he had a smile on his face after knowing that Jason would be joining him in the Nigerian national team.

He definitely didn’t want Jason on another national team just because if they ever met at any national competition, he was sure Jason would probably make him viral on YouTube.

“Maybe I’m the same age physically, but mentally, I’m fifty-eight,” Jason said truthfully but Zaidu just scoffed,

“Yeah right,” Zaidu said as he rolled his eyes again, not believing Jason’s words, not knowing they were actually true.

“I’ll congratulate you in advance… Welcome to the team,” Okocha said to Jason, not paying any attention to the scoffing Zaidu.

“Thank you,” Jason nodded.

“I’ll communicate your response to Gernot and he’ll have an official invitation sent to you, as well as take care of notifying your club about your international call up,”

” He probably hopes to have you join the team for the upcoming international break, so you should be hearing from him soon,” Okocha told Jason what to expect.

“Just stay sharp and get ready to travel, I hope to see you in Nigerian colors soon,” Okocha added with a smile, happy to have another talent join the Nigerian national team.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jason replied with a smile, happy to hear the news.

The next international break was less than a week away which meant he could potentially appear in Nigerian colors as early as next week, so how couldn’t he be happy?

He had only started playing professional football midway the previous season and was already handed an international call-up.

That was an impressive feat… At least to him, he didn’t know what other people would think, but he was happy as it validated his constant efforts and he was about to cross another milestone that he never even saw in his previous reality.

No… It was even more apt to say he had already crossed it as he hadn’t even been scouted for the national team in his previous reality.

After a little more conversation, Jason parted ways with the Okocha and Sanusi and headed to his car.

As he got into his car, he immediately took out his phone and called his Daphne.

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

*Click*

“Guess who the latest addition to the Nigerian national team is?” Jason said into the phone’s mic as soon as she picked up.

“Definitely not you cuz the moment you set foot in Nigeria, you’ll be drowned with marriage proposals,” Daphne shot back, her ear already hurting as Jason had come to brag to her about another one of his achievements.