The father of former England youth international Dominic Iorfa Jnr says his son is now ready to represent Nigeria seven years after turning down an invitation to be a part of the Nigeria U23 team.
Dominic Iorfa senior stopped his son from honouring a call by former Nigeria U23 coach Samson Siasia in 2016. Back then he was making the step up at English Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“I wouldn’t want anybody to misunderstand me. The truth is that my son is not ripe for U-23. He is just 19 years, so he needs more time to mature to that level,” he said in Makurdi back in 2016.
“Moreover, the timing is not good for the young man. He is just getting into the line up of Wolves and there are so many matches for him to play between now and January”.
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He went ahead to play for England at several youth levels including the U20 and even trained with the senior team when they were short of numbers while in camp. The invitation has somehow stopped and now at the age of 27 he is gradually picking up form at League One side Sheffield Wednesday.
Iorfa has played a role in their fine start to the season and will likely be involved some more as they bid to gain promotion to the English Championship following relegation to the League One last season. His father believe he is now ready for senior international football with Nigeria.
Explaining why he didn’t allow him to play for Nigeria initially, he said a former Nigeria international, the politics of the national team made him keep his son from the national team but believe at 27, he is now fully ready to cope with whatever that might happen.
“Every person will have ambition to play for his country but you know I remember when I came to the scene in 1984, people like you, Paul Bassey, Isaac Imafidon and a lot of people promoted me during my early days. If you can remember the politics of the national team, if you are not careful it can cause a lot of damages”, he told veteran journalist Mitchel Obi.
“I remember even when I was coming on the scene very strongly everybody termed me as a Ghanaian. They stopped me from going to the national team that I am from Ghana and not Nigeria.
“My son would have been a very good asset to the national team but when you look at the process, because I have been part and parcel of it. As far as he is happy where he is, I don’t want any issue that tomorrow you are frustrated to a point. So because of those reasons when you are grown up, he is 27 now. He was born in 1995.
“I would love for him to play for Nigeria now but I can not go and beg them to invite him because this is someone when he was coming on the scene played England U16, U17, U18 and the U20. He even represented England in the European Championship which they lost in the final to Germany in Holland”, he stated.
On if he will be reaching out to the authorities to hand a call up to his son, he said he won’t do that because the profile of his son is enough to get him into the team if Nigeria want him.
“So if you look at it, you can’t have that kind of ability and you will be begging Nigeria for your son to come and play, so at the end of the day it’s not something I can be holding on as long as far as he is happy, you can not force him to do what he doesn’t want to do. So let everything happen naturally, anytime they are happy they can call him. He is playing very well now”, he rounded up saying.
