The Italian Football Federation have made a concrete move to cap-tie Leicester City central defender Caleb Okoli, with manager Luciano Spalletti naming him in a 23-man squad list for the UEFA Nations League matches against France and Israel this month.
Given that Okoli is not an U21 player, he will become cap-tied to his country of birth if he makes his senior debut during the international break in September.
The Vicenza native is eligible to wear the colours of the Super Eagles through his Nigerian parents Paul and Tina Okoli who arrived in Italy in 1996.
Okoli became provisionally cap-tied to the Italians when he started a European U19 Championship qualifier against Malta in November 2019.
The former Atalanta man was a player of interest to manager Jose Peseiro during his tenure as coach of the Nigeria national team, with the Portuguese stating that he gave Ademola Lookman the task of convincing the dual-national defender to pledge his international future to Nigeria.
Lookman, who is also a dual-national player, has been unable to convince Okoli to switch his international allegiance to Nigeria, considering the fact that the Italian-Nigerian defender has already reported for international duty with Italy and trained today at Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano.
Okoli participated in two training camps with the four-time world champions in January and May 2022 under former manager Roberto Mancini.
Paul Okoli has promised to be in attendance to watch his son make his potential debut for Gli Azzurri.
“If there is a chance for Caleb to play, we will be there one hundred percent, as always. We are very happy for this call-up, and obviously Caleb is too,” he told Vicenza-based newspaper Il Giornale di Vicenza.
“We found out by reading it in the newspaper; at that point we called him and he told us that just a moment before he had received the official call, he was very happy”.
Although he was born in Vicenza and raised in Italy, Okoli could not make his debut for the Italian youth teams until he attained the age of majority, after he was declared an Italian citizen at the age of 18.
“This is what Italian law wants and we respect it. In other countries the path to citizenship is different: I imagine that each government makes its own evaluations based on what it deems right for its own country,” Okoli explained.
The Italian Football Federation have already cap-tied Napoli midfielder Michael Folorunsho and Tottenham Hotspur fullback Destiny Udogie, and Okoli is set to follow in their footsteps.
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