Cyriel Dessers has been criticised for his decision to switch allegiance to Nigeria ahead of Belgium after having a very good season where he finished as top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie that was declared null and void due to the coronavirus crisis.
Dessers was born in Belgium to a Nigerian father and a Belgium mother and played for the youth team of Belgium once in an unofficial game which keeps him eligible to represent Nigeria at senior level without requiring any form of clearance from FIFA.
After a storming season for Heracles Almelo where he thumped home 18 goals, the 25 year old who has long been pushing for a chance in the senior national team of Nigeria finally got his wish and was called up by coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr.
Rohr called him in the list of players for the AFCON 2021 Qualifiers against Sierra Leone but the game was later cancelled due to the outbreak of coronavirus. His decision to honour the call hasn’t gone down well in Belgium.
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In an opinion piece latched onto by the editorial team of this portal, he was criticised for not been patient after a good season as he has only just made his mark. Reports has it that he was among the players with an outside chance of making the team before the end of this year.
He however accepted to play for Nigeria much to the frustration of coach Roberto Martinez who according to the writer has marked Dessers as one of the players he will monitor closely after a storming season with Heracles.
Ade Emmanuel
