March 20, (THEWILL) – Gift Orban, the sensational KAA Gent striker, will not be making his debut for Nigeria’s youth team on Wednesday, when the Olympic Eagles play Guinea in a 2023 Africa Under-23 Cup of Nations qualifier.
Salisu Yusuf, the head coach of the Nigeria’s U-23s, included Orban among the sixteen foreign-based professionals called up for the two-legged encounter, which falls within the FIFA window for international matches. However, Gent refused to release Orban to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) because the invitation letter was sent late.
Orban was looking forward to joining the U-23s in Abuja, but the Belgian Pro League side insists that he remains with the club for the period. Orban’s absence is a significant setback for Salisu Yusuf, as the Bison FC product is statistically the hottest Nigerian striker on the books of a top ten European League club since the start of this month.
The Gent’s attacker has scored nine goals in five games in March, none from penalties, at a rate of 1.8 goals per game. On March 15, as THEWILL reported, Orban scored the fastest hat-trick in the history of all European competitions in their Europa Conference League match against Istanbul Basaksehir in just three minutes and 25 seconds.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
