Nigeria manager Gernot Rohr embarked on a scouting mission to Germany last weekend.
The Franco-German football tactician was among the 30,150 spectators that witnessed the Bundesliga clash between Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich at the PreZero Arena (Sinsheim) last Saturday, .
While Bayern Munich teenage sensation Joshua Zirkzee went the distance on his full German Bundesliga debut, former Germany U20 skipper Kevin Akpoguma entered the pitch as a substitute in the 73rd minute.
Rohr must have been impressed by what he saw of Zirkzee, with the Bayern Munich number 35 scoring 15 minutes into his debut.
The onetime Bayern Munich central defender monitored the two players with a view to a possible call-up to the Super Eagles in the near future.
The Nigeria Football Federation have been on Akpoguma’s case for close to six years now and were unable to convince him to switch his allegiance to the Super Eagles despite dangling a carrot in front of him – an opportunity to represent the three-time African champions at the 2018 World Cup.
The 24-year-old Akpoguma has earned 64 caps for Germany youth teams, the last of which came against Portugal U21s in a friendly in March 2017.
Zirkzee and Akpoguma are provisionally cap-tied to the Netherlands and Germany respectively.
