Arsenal Man Stranded in Nigeria

Kelechi-Nwakali-Stranded-in-Nigeria

Kelechi Nwakali is currently stranded in Nigeria due to his inability to secure a visa, the BBC understands.

The Arsenal loanee has not been able to return to the Porto B team since representing Nigeria in a 2020 Olympics qualifier match.

The 20-year-old had a single-entry visa to Portugal meaning that once he steps out of Portugal, he will need renewal to return.

Unfortunately, all attempts to get that done has not yielded any results as the whole process is facing a lengthy delay.

However, the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, has stated that it is not resting on its oars on the matter which it hopes will get sorted soon.

"The federation has been working hard to get his visa sorted as quickly as possible, but it's taken longer than expected," NFF's director of communications Ademola Olajire told BBC Sport.

"We hope it will come out after the Easter break to enable Nwakali return to Portugal."

The situation has made Nwakali miss the tier-two Portuguese football side's last four league games after making 16 appearances before his trip.

Back in 2016, Arsenal beat the likes of Manchester City as well as some Dutch, German and Spanish clubs to the signing of the midfielder who is a 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup and Golden Boot winner.

A double loan spell with VVV-Venlo and MVV Maastricht between 2016 and 2018 saw him struggle in futility prior to his switch to Porto.

A month later, he was invited to represent the Nigerian first team at the AFCON qualifiers but did not feature in Seychelles.

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