{"id":437874,"date":"2011-06-07T13:01:30","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T13:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/07\/nigeria-ogbonna-never-wanted-to-play-for-country\/"},"modified":"2011-06-07T13:01:30","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T13:01:30","slug":"nigeria-ogbonna-never-wanted-to-play-for-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/07\/nigeria-ogbonna-never-wanted-to-play-for-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: Ogbonna Never Wanted to Play for Country"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"20.1075479077\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.champion.com.ng\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/dailychampion180.jpg\" alt=\"Daily Champion (Lagos)\" title=\"Visit Daily Champion (Lagos)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>7 June 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>Torino defender Angelo Ogbonna says playing for Nigeria was never an option for him.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old, who was born in Italy to Nigerian parents, was being targeted by the Super Eagles for a call-up. But he was handed his first Italy senior call up by Coach Cesare Prandelli last Saturday, in spite of playing his football in Serie B.<\/p>\n<p>Ogbonna is now in line for his Italy senior team debut when they play Republic of Ireland in a friendly on Tuesday (today).<\/p>\n<p>The Torino defender says he never considered Nigeria as an option for his international career.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;I never waited for a call from Nigeria. Having been born here and growing up in Italy, I always considered myself to be Italian.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thankfully I have never been subjected to racist and ignorant attitudes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ogbonna is the first Torino player to be called up to the Azzurri since 2007.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>See the original article here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201106071045.html\" title=\"Nigeria: Ogbonna Never Wanted to Play for Country\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nigeria: Ogbonna Never Wanted to Play for Country<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 7 June 2011 Torino defender Angelo Ogbonna says playing for Nigeria was never an option for him. The 23-year-old, who was born in Italy to Nigerian parents, was being targeted by the Super Eagles for a call-up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":437130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-437874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nigeria: Ogbonna Never Wanted to Play for Country - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/07\/nigeria-ogbonna-never-wanted-to-play-for-country\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Nigeria: Ogbonna Never Wanted to Play for Country - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"7 June 2011 Torino defender Angelo Ogbonna says playing for Nigeria was never an option for him. 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