Former Golden Eaglets star, Emmanuel Sarki has made a starling revelation on how some coaches demanded £5,000 for him to be invited to the senior national team.
The Kaduna-born winger seemed destined to progress to the Super Eagles after an impressive performance with the Flying Eagles and the U-23 side, only to earn a call-up to the Haitian national team in 2014.
Sarki was a contemporary of John Obi Mikel in the Golden Eaglets team that featured in the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Cup hosted by Finland.
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In an interview with the Athletic, Sarki, said that he was told to pay £5,000 in a bid to represent the Super Eagles.
“There were people demanding I pay £5,000 just to make sure Nigeria called me up.
“What? I have to pay to play football for my country? No way, I’m not doing that. But my grandfather had come from Haiti to Nigeria as a missionary, I had his birth certificate, and there was another Haitian in the team at Wisla, who called the Haitian Football Federation president and told him all about me.”