Michael Kayode has ended the speculation. Speaking to Tuttosport in an interview published on Thursday, the Brentford right-back confirmed that he will always give priority to Italy’s national team despite being born to Nigerian parents and remaining eligible to switch to the Super Eagles at senior level.
Michael Kayode | Brentford | Age: 21 | Born: Italy (to Nigerian parents)
International history: Italy U15 through U21 — never made a competitive senior appearance for any nation
His decision: Waiting for Italy senior call-up | Not switching to Nigeria
Gattuso dinner: Attended meeting with former Italy coach + other Premier League-based Italian players ahead of March 2026 World Cup play-offs
Tuttosport quote: “I will always give priority to Italy. I have no doubt about which path to choose.”
Michael Kayode could have been a Super Eagles right-back heading into the 2026 World Cup. He plays in the Premier League, has started 35 top-flight matches this season, has been nominated for the Young Player of the Season award, and is born to Nigerian parents. The eligibility was there. The quality is not in question. But the decision, at least for now, is final: Kayode wants to wear blue, not green, and he has said so in the clearest possible terms.
Interviewed by Tuttosport, the Italian daily that covers Serie A and the Italian football world with particular depth, Kayode stated that his connection to Italy’s football identity runs through his entire youth career and that he has never had any genuine uncertainty about which country he wants to represent. “I will always give priority to Italy: even at youth level, I grew up wearing the Azzurri shirt,” he said. “I hope to achieve this dream as soon as possible, but I have no doubt about which path to choose.”
Nigerian football fans processing this news alongside the summer’s other eligibility discussions can use the Bet9ja code for the World Cup season to stay engaged with all the Super Eagles team news as Eric Chelle prepares his final squad for the United States tournament.
The Gattuso Dinner That Offered Hope, Then Didn’t Deliver
The most revealing detail in Kayode’s interview is the account of his meeting with former Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso. In the lead-up to Italy’s March 2026 World Cup qualifying play-offs, Gattuso held a dinner with several Italian players based in the Premier League. Kayode attended. “Yes, we also had dinner with other Premier League players,” he confirmed in Tuttosport. “I was doing well, I felt involved even without being called up for the play-offs.”
That framing is telling. Kayode attended a gathering that was clearly designed to communicate to Italian-eligible Premier League players that they were in the coach’s thinking, even if not yet in the squad. He was not called up for the play-offs themselves, but he interpreted his exclusion not as rejection but as a signal that the process is ongoing. That reading may be accurate. It may also be the optimistic interpretation of a 21-year-old determined to see his Italy dream through to its conclusion regardless of how long it takes.
Gattuso, who was appointed Italy coach earlier this year, has a track record of valuing players he has watched develop from close proximity, and his decision to include Kayode in the dinner group rather than the play-off squad suggests the right-back is on a watchlist rather than a dead end. Whether that watchlist ever produces a senior cap before Kayode’s eligibility for Nigeria becomes academically rather than practically moot remains an open question. Readers following Kayode’s career development can check the Bet9ja YOHAIG registration offer for the best current deal as the summer window and World Cup season begin simultaneously.
What Nigeria Loses By Missing Out
It is worth being specific about what the Super Eagles are not getting. Kayode started 35 Premier League matches this season for Brentford, accumulating one goal and one assist while establishing himself as one of the division’s more technically complete right-backs at his age. He has been nominated for the Premier League Young Player of the Season award alongside Rayan Cherki, Kobbie Mainoo, and five others, making him the only right-back on the shortlist and the only Nigerian-eligible player in the group.
His long throw, which Brentford have weaponised as one of their most productive attacking set-piece mechanisms, is a specific tactical asset that very few players in the world can replicate. His defensive positioning, press resistance, and ability to carry the ball out under pressure from the back line reflect a coaching formation rooted in Italian defensive principles combined with the physical demands of the Premier League. He would have been, if Nigeria had secured his commitment, one of the most technically polished right-backs available to Eric Chelle for the World Cup squad.
The NFF’s failure to convert Kayode’s eligibility into a Super Eagles commitment is part of a pattern that has cost Nigeria players of comparable quality in previous years. Andrew Omobamidele chose the Republic of Ireland. Bright Osayi-Samuel chose Nigeria but only after significant courting. The Kayode case joins a list that reflects both the NFF’s historical difficulty in competing with European national teams for diaspora players and a set of decisions by individual players that are ultimately personal and irreversible once made.
The FIFA Eligibility Window Is Still Open, But Not Forever
Under FIFA’s current regulations, Kayode can still switch from Italy’s youth programme to Nigeria’s senior team, provided Italy’s senior side does not cap him in a competitive international match before any such switch is formally requested and approved. His attendance at the Gattuso dinner and his exclusion from the actual play-off squad means he has not been capped at senior level by Italy, which technically keeps the door open from a regulatory standpoint.
In practice, however, Kayode’s own words close that door more firmly than any FIFA regulation could. A player who tells a major Italian newspaper that he has no doubt about his choice, that Italy has always been his priority, and that he felt involved even when not selected, is not a player who is privately weighing the Nigeria option. He is a player who has made his decision, communicated it publicly, and is now waiting for Italy’s coaching staff to agree with the assessment he has already made of his own quality.
As reported by FootballInNigeria.com.ng, the Kayode decision arrives in the same week that Rio Ngumoha’s photograph in the 1996 Nigeria jersey set social media alight with speculation about a different young player of Nigerian descent who has not yet committed internationally. The contrast between Ngumoha’s open body language and Kayode’s explicit declaration tells the NFF everything it needs to know about where to direct its recruitment energy in the weeks before the World Cup squad is confirmed. Fans following all the Super Eagles eligibility news can also use the Bet9ja mega jackpot page for the latest offers as the tournament preparation builds through the summer.
📌 Did You Know?
- Michael Kayode was born in Florence, Italy, the city most associated with Renaissance art and culture, and grew up within the Italian football ecosystem before moving to Fiorentina’s academy. Florence is also the home city of Fiorentina, the club where Kayode developed before his loan and subsequent permanent move to Brentford.
- Gennaro Gattuso, who held the dinner meeting that Kayode attended, is one of Italy’s most celebrated former footballers, having won the World Cup with the Azzurri in 2006 and the Champions League with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007. His appointment as Italy’s head coach in early 2026 followed a period of Italian football reconstruction after their failure to qualify for successive World Cups.
- FIFA’s regulations allow a player who has represented one nation at youth level to switch to a different nation at senior level, provided the player has not made a competitive senior appearance for the first nation. Kayode’s Italy career is entirely at youth level, meaning his switch to Nigeria is technically possible up to the point of any future senior Italy cap.
- Andrew Omobamidele, the Norwich City and Republic of Ireland defender who chose Dublin over Lagos in a comparable decision several years ago, is one of the most high-profile recent examples of a player of Nigerian parentage committing to a European national team over the Super Eagles. His choice was also communicated publicly and definitively, and has not been reversed.
- Kayode’s Premier League Young Player of the Season nomination, alongside players including Kobbie Mainoo and Rayan Cherki, makes him the only defender and the only Nigerian-eligible player on the shortlist. That recognition came in the same week as his public commitment to Italy, giving the moment a particular bittersweet quality for Nigerian football supporters.
- Tuttosport, the Turin-based Italian sports daily where Kayode gave his interview, is one of Italy’s three major national sports newspapers alongside Corriere dello Sport and La Gazzetta dello Sport. A player of dual eligibility choosing to make his international allegiance declaration through Tuttosport rather than a Nigerian outlet is itself a signal about where his primary football identity lies.
- Rio Ngumoha, the Liverpool teenager of Nigerian descent who was photographed wearing the 1996 Nigeria Olympic jersey in the same week as Kayode’s Italy declaration, represents the most high-profile active case of an undecided player with Nigerian eligibility at this precise moment in the Super Eagles recruitment cycle. The NFF’s contrasting treatment of the two players’ situations will shape how future diaspora recruitment is approached heading into the 2028 World Cup cycle.
