Sierra Leone look to call up Nigel Reo-Coker
The Football Association of Sierra Leone has sent an invitation to Nigel Reo-Coker to play for the country. The Sierra Leone manager Christian Cole will pick the Aston Villa midfielder for the squad that faces South Africa in October’s Nations Cup qualifier.
Reo-Coker is of Sierra Leone descent, but was born in England.
The Aston Villa player has captained the under 21 England national team and was on standby for the 2006 World Cup. A back injury forced him to drop out of the standby position at the time and the 26 year old has not been able to produce the form he showed
at West Ham.
Since arriving at Aston Villa he has been in and out of the squad and never blossomed under Martin O’ Neill. He has featured this season for Villa and it will be interesting to see if Reo-Coker will accept the call up. The midfielder was very close to an
England cap and is still young. He may still intend to play for England but will need to become a regular in the Aston Villa line up and produce the form that he showed in 2006. For now, he seems unlikely to feature in Fabio Cappello’s England plans.
Cole will seek to take advantage of this. The Sierra Leone team would benefit by having someone of the calibre of Reo-Coker in the side. The Sierra Leone Football Association general secretary Abdul Rahman Swarray is confident that the Englishman will join
the team. “From what I’ve heard from his agent, I’m confident that Reo-Coker will honour our invitation to play for his country of origin.”
Cole is due to name his squad in October, but the Sierra Leone Football Association’s plans may fall through as they have yet to apply to FIFA for clearance of Reo-Coker’s switch in nationality.
Tags: