City To Stop Iheanacho From U-23 Duties

The national U-23 coach, Samson Siasia early this week, invited some members of the Flying Eagles squad that just returned from the FIFA U-20 World Cup, including Manchester City starlet, Kelechi Iheanacho for the impending Africa U-23 Championship qualifier against Congo next month.

Sports Vanguard has gathered that Iheanacho’s invitation has been given a cold reception by his club, Manchester City owing to the treatment the player received from coach Manu Garba during the team’s campaign in the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Iheanacho saw only 83 minutes of action, in a tournament the team played four matches. This infuriated the former English Premier League champions.

The club’s scouting and recruitment operations manager Fergal Harkin demanded a technical report from the NFF.

City were also aghast that another youth star, Chidebere Nwakali who was also at the tournament in New Zealand, even got a worse treatment as he was made to warm the bench all through the tournament until the last ten minutes of the second round match against Germany in which the Eagles lost 1- 0.

We gathered that City, who are yet to receive any response from the Nigeria Football Federation on the treatment of Iheanacho and Nwakali are not enthusiastic over the latest invitation of Iheanacho for the Africa U-23 qualifier next month, which is likely to clash with the club’s pre-season tour of Australia for which Iheanacho has been penned down.