In the Case of Sidney Sam et al.....

Sidney Sam is a product of the revolution of German youth football, which has seen the emergence of a conveyor belt of top quality talent.

Many of these players are 2nd generation Germans. Following the success of Mesut Ozil and the national team at the world cup, the Turkish federation has recently moved aggressively to court those of them of turkish decent. In response the german federation have had to be super alert and are tying these players to the national team as early as possible.

The reality is that for players like Sidney Sam, the first loyalty and option is their 'home' countries, often in contrast to their parents'. This is the stark reality for diaspora Nigerians, and a major factor in influencing how we approach their recruitment. And for those who wonder why we should bother, and that we should not be in the business of 'begging' anyone to wear the national team colors, I respectfully state that that is not really the issue. Indeed, no player should ever be begged to play for Nigeria.

However, as long as the Nigerian constitution allows for dual citizenship, they remain valid options for national team selectors. Neither should or does their invitation preclude the invitation of any eligible local players.

For Sidney Sam though, the challenge he has is that in the German national team pecking order, he has quite a few top quality options in front of him in that left midfield role which he favors, with Lukas Podolski as the established player. Behind Podolski there is Marko Marin who is a top talent and Marcell Jansen and Dennis Aogo who play in both left back and left midfield.

Then there are a couple of new options who have emerged from the superb season that Dortmund and Mainz are having in the Bundesliga. These include, André Schürrle who recently made his debut in a friendly against Sweden, and Mario Götze. And then there is Marco Reus of Borussia Mönchengladbach. Each of these players have already made their national team debuts or been invited. This is not the case, as yet, with Sidney Sam, which may well be a major factor in recruiting him for Nigeria.

In the case of Sidney Sam and any other diaspora Nigerian footballer, the challenge for the NFF and Siasia is to layout their vision of an international career with the Super Eagles and the place of the player in it, and then let the chips fall where they may...