Fulham of England midfielder, Alex Iwobi has added another angle to information spreading ahead of his 100th cap with the Super Eagles, as the former Arsenal and Everton dazzler says his father never forced him to choose Nigeria.
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Sports247 reports that the 30-year-old star’s declaration comes after his father, Barrister Chuba Iwobi admitted he is happy to see how far his son has come since opting for Nigeria in 2015, despite haven played for England’s youth teams.
That decision is set to hit a huge milestone against Portugal this Wednesday, as Iwobi will get his 100th appearance for Nigeria once he features in a much-expected international friendly versus Cristiano Ronaldo’s country.
Apart from joining Nigeria’s small number of players with a century of caps, Iwobi would move ahead of former captain, Ahmed Musa in becoming the player who reaches the 100 games’ mark quickest with the Super Eagles.
Musa got his 100th cap in a FIFA World Cup qualification match versus Central African Republic on October 10th, 2021 and – at the age of 11 years and 35 days – but Iwobi is set to make it at 10 years and 245 days.
Incidentally, Iwobi made his debut for the Super Eagles on October 8th, 2015 as a substitute for Musa in the 57th minute of a 2-0 loss to Democratic Republic of Congo during an international friendly that was played in Visé, Belgium.
Iwobi, who was born in Lagos before moving to England at the age of four, after a brief stay in Turkey, grew up in Newham, London, where he was groomed in Arsenal’s Hale End Academy and captained The Gunners’ U21 squad.
Reflecting ahead of Wednesday’s game, Iwobi recalled, “I represented England at youth level but always felt Nigeria was home. My father told me to make the decision that I felt was good for me. He was part of the decision, but he didn’t force it on me.”
Sports247 reports further that Iwobi opened a charity shop two years ago in east London to give out free food every Christmas, then launched a music career under the stage name ’17,’ which is a reference to his jersey number at Fulham.
His debut single, titled “Don’t Shoot,” was released in June 2024 and featured contributions from former Arsenal teammate, Chuba Akpom, performing as Skoli, and Medy Elito, known as Don-EE, with close to 60,000 streams on Spotify.
Iwobi released his second single (What’s Luv?) in October 2024, featuring SPKS and MBrown, then expanded into a nine-track project that featured Fido, 24AM, Giddi and SPKS in his debut EP (More To Life) this past April 9th.
