Nigeria have had a hit-and-miss success rate with its efforts to woo dual-nationality players, but Ademola Lookman's success could lead to a major trend reversal.
For every Peter Osaze Odemwingie or William Troost-Ekong who obeyed Nigeria's call, there is an Angelo Ogbonna or Bukayo Saka whose decision to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the international field ensured the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) laboured in vain.
For the latter, that choice is often — though not always — informed by the feeling that the platform Nigeria offers is not of a magnitude commensurate to the lofty ambitions they may have, and it is, indeed, hard to fault such reasoning.
Lookman's success story
But while the logic behind such thinking cannot be reasonably disputed, that argument is stripped of some validity when subjected to the intense glare and glow of the fresh success of Lookman, who must now go down as the greatest of all Super Eagles to have been born and/or bred overseas.
Monday evening saw Lookman crowned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) as the continent's best footballer for 2024, just two years following his nationality switch from England, the land of his birth.
Lookman, who had represented the English throughout the junior ranks and seemed destined to do so at senior level, finally gave Nigeria the nod ahead of the ill-fated Qatar 2022 play-offs after previously rejecting the West African nation's approaches.
Whatever lingering doubts and fears he may have entertained at the time have doubtlessly dissipated now that he has reached the very pinnacle of the game.
His peerless standing among African footballers presently was cemented also by his 14th-place finish in the 2024 Ballon d'Or ranking — the only African nominee, in fact, for that distinguished honour.
Nigeria's role in Lookman's success story
True, the bulk of the body of work that has propelled Lookman to these heights came while playing for his club employers, Italian side Atalanta — the highlight of which was that UEFA Europa League final-winning hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen in May.
But his stellar performances for Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) earlier this year, where the Super Eagles went all the way to the final, no doubt added more than a layer of sheen.
Even if one would argue that playing for Nigeria did little to amplify Lookman's accomplishments in the year under review — a viewpoint which, in any case, could be easily countered — it certainly did nothing to dim his lights, and surely Lookman himself appreciates the role Nigeria has played in realising his dreams.
“This award is for me, my family, _my nation_, and to be recognised as the best player in Africa is something incredible,” the 27-year-old, in his resplendent, emerald-green traditional Nigerian robe, remarked on receiving his award at the event.
“I am extremely proud.”
How Lookman's success story could open doors for Nigeria
Lookman is only the fourth player born with multiple nationalities — after Frederic Kanoute (2007), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (2015), and Riyad Mahrez (2016) — to have been named Africa's Player of the Year, and he is unlikely to be the last.
Hopefully, there would now be quite a few prospective Nigeria-eligible players of a similar background who would be wondering whether they could be the next on that stage.
Representing Nigeria, clearly, is not the ambition-stifling option that it may have seemed in the past.
World Cup glory may still be beyond the reach of a Nigeria international, touché, but — as the case of Lookman has shown — not the relatively modest but still very impressive feat of being reckoned among football's brightest and best.
