George Ilenikhena: Will He Join the Bandwagon?

With the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, still a glorious Principals Cup, it is no surprise that the country’s football governing body, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, is heavily dependent on Nigerian players of foreign descent or players that manage to ‘escape’ the shores of Nigeria to Europe at early ages and are making waves for the senior national team, the Super Eagles. With the recent exploit of 18-year-old George Ilenikhena for Monaco in the UEFA Champions League, the egg heads of the NFF have been given another shortcut opportunity to land another Eagle. Kunle Adewale asks if the 18-year-old will join the bandwagon

George Ilenikhena moved to France with his parents at age three after a difficult start to life.

In spite of having starred for Amiens SC, Royale Antwerp and named one of the best players born in 2006 worldwide, very little was known about the 18-year-old until last week, when he scored the decisive goal in Monaco’s 2-1 win over Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League.

It, therefore, came as no surprise after Ilenikhena’s exploit against Barca that former Nigeria international and technical committee member of the NFF, Victor Ikpeba, charged his employer to quickly start the move of wooing Ilenikhena to shift allegiance to Nigeria, having starred for France at age-grade level.

Despite Nigeria currently boasting a wealth of attacking talents, including African Player of the Year, Victor Osimhen, along with Ademola Lookman and Victor Boniface, Ikpeba believes Ilenikhena has the potential to be a future star for the Super Eagles.

“I have been following the remarkable progress of the boy, he’s quick and will certainly be one for the future for the Super Eagles,” Ikpeba told ScoreNigeria.

“I know that he has already been capped by the French age-grade team, but we can still get him to play for the Super Eagles. It will be a tough battle, but with the right and timely approach, beginning with getting to his family, he can go on to play for Nigeria,” Ikpeba said.

With the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, still a glorious Principals Cup competition, culminating in previous Super Eagles coaches to hardly go to watch NPFL matches, NFF chieftains therefore prefer the shortcut of wooing Nigeria players of foreign descent, who could not make the national team of the country of their birth, to star for the Super Eagles.

Indeed, erstwhile NFF President, Amaju Pinnick never hid his resolve at ensuring that youngsters of Nigerian descent, who are doing well in England and other European leagues don the Nigerian colours at the appropriate time. He said it was in the plans of his administration to build a young Super Eagles team ahead of the 2022 World Cup, (which Nigeria however failed to qualify for).

“What we are trying to do is what we call VIP scouting – talking to these young players that are playing abroad to play for their father land. Nigerians, even if they have four or five passports, are always excited being Nigerians. I can assure you that we shall get them to play for us at an appropriate time,” Pinnick had said.

Therefore, the Super Eagles will always remain a second-string team in any international competition because more than 70 per cent of the players on parade are players that failed to meet the requirements of their country of birth and now see the Nigeria national team as an alternative.

Little wonder most of our national team players are no longer passionate and committed because the team was always a second choice and they never felt the pain of losing the way a ‘real’ Nigerian player would have felt it.

While many players have admitted to drawing inspiration from singing their country’s national anthems while on international duties for their country, in contrast to Nigeria, some of these our foreign imports couldn’t even sing the country’s anthem, ‘old or new’, not to talk of trying to draw inspiration from it.

The next agenda on the table of the NFF may therefore be how to lure Ilenikhena to star for Nigeria rather than how to develop the home league to a level where it can produce quality players for the various national teams.

Having made his way through all of the youth levels of the amateur Antony Football Evolution, Ilenikhena joined the professional club of Amiens that was just relegated to Ligue 2, for the 2021–22 season.

During that season he scored a total of 24 goals for the U17 national side, while also playing and scoring in the Coupe Gambardella. This soon drew the attention of big clubs in France and abroad during the summer 2022, while he was still just aged 15.

Ilenikhena made his professional debut for the Amiens SC in November 2022, during a 10–0 home Coupe de France win to the Aiglon du Lamentin. He came on as a substitute for Jérémy Gelin, as his side was already 8–0 up.

Having fully moved from the youth teams to the National 3 reserve team, Ilenikhena still kept on training regularly with the first team, even making his first assist in December 2022 during a friendly game against FUS Rabat.

On 29 June 2023, Ilenikhena signed for Belgian Pro League Champions, Royal Antwerp, on a four-year deal, for a reported fee of €6 million and on October 11, 2023, he was named by English newspaper, The Guardian, as one of the best players born in 2006 worldwide.

Later that year, on December 13, he scored his first Champions League goal in the 92nd minute of stoppage time, securing a 3–2 victory against Barcelona to be his club’s first ever win in the competition.

On 25 July 2024, Ilenikhena signed for Ligue 1 Club, AS Monaco last week, scored his second Champions League goal in the 71st minute of second half, securing a 2–1 victory against Barcelona to be his club’s first win in the competition.

The former Antwerp striker has already surpassed Mbappe’s record at Monaco, and his strike against Barcelona added another milestone to his growing reputation.

According to BBC, Ilenikhena is the first player in Champions League history to score against the same team in successive matches but for different clubs, having previously netted for Antwerp against Barcelona last December.

With his first goal for Monaco in only his fifth appearance for the club, Ikpeba insists Nigeria must act fast to secure his services.

“This is the time to get him in, and thereafter he can fight for his place in the team,” he concluded.

Ilenikhena’s rise began early, setting a Ligue 2 record as the youngest scorer at 16 years and 150 days when he netted for Bordeaux in January 2023.