Former Premier League defender, Nedum Onuoha has admitted that rejecting the chance to represent Nigeria national football team remains one of the biggest regrets of his football career.
Speaking on The Mixer Podcast, the former Manchester City, Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers defender reflected on the difficult decision he made during his early years at Manchester City.
Onuoha explained that at the time, his focus was fully on breaking into City’s first team after progressing through the club’s academy system.
“Coming through the City academy and being a supporter of the club, nothing was more important to me than playing for City,” he said.
The defender revealed that the opportunity to play for Nigeria came shortly after Roberto Mancini arrived at Manchester City.
“Mancini had just arrived at the club and then Dedryck Boyata came from the reserves and started playing ahead of me,” Onuoha recalled.
Around that same period, the then Super Eagles coach approached him about representing Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations.
However, the former defender admitted he feared that leaving England for several weeks could damage his chances of establishing himself at City.
“Thinking from the football standpoint, I realised going away for six weeks because of AFCON might not put me in a better position at City when I got back,” he explained.
Onuoha also pointed out that AFCON was not as highly valued in European football circles at the time compared to today.
“In those times AFCON wasn’t as big as now. Most African players were not signed because AFCON was in that window,” he said.
He added that only elite African stars such as Samuel Eto’o, Jay-Jay Okocha and John Obi Mikel could leave for international duty and easily return to their club positions.
The former City defender also admitted that his decision eventually led to criticism from Nigerian fans.
“I was put in the bracket of players that would rather beg to play for England than choose to play for their homeland Nigeria, and once you’ve been painted with that brush, it’s done,” he said.
Now retired, Onuoha says he looks back on the decision with deep regret after never experiencing international football.
“Looking back on my career, there are lots of things where I wish I had done something differently, even though at the time it made perfect sense to me,” he admitted.
“I regret not playing international football” he concluded.
