2023 African Games: Brentford unlikely to release key Flying Eagles defender to Nigeria Football Federation

Allnigeriasoccer.com can exclusively report that Premier League side Brentford are unlikely to release Benjamin Fredrick to the Nigeria Football Federation for the 2023 African Games. 

Fredrick is still age eligible for the Flying Eagles and has been named on a 30-player provisional roster for the tournament holding in Ghana between 8-22 March 2024.

The Simoiben FC product established himself as a key player during the 2023 Africa U20 Cup of Nations and World Cup, helping the Ladan Bosso-led team post an impressive seven clean sheets (regulation time) in ten appearances. 

It should be noted that The Bees are not obliged to release Fredrick to the Nigerian Federation as the competition falls outside the recognised Fifa international match calendar and as a result it didn't make sense for the NFF to push for the release of the central defender. 

As of now, there are no plans to add another foreign-based player to the provisional roster because of the aforementioned reason.

The highly-rated Fredrick has seen his stock rise in recent weeks, with Brentford boss Thomas Frank handing him four first team call-ups but he remained a non-playing substitute in those games including two in the Premier League..

Nathaniel Nwosu and Daniel Bameyi, who were both in the squad for last year's World Cup, have also been named to the U20 national team training camp roster. 

The Flying Eagles will lock horns with Uganda, South Sudan, Senegal, and Tunisia in the group stage of the 2023 African Games..

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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