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Danish Football Association’s talent manager, Kenneth Heiner-Møller, has admitted to being worried over the international allegiance of Manchester United youngster Chido Obi-Martin.
United warded off significant competition from both England and abroad to secure the services of Obi-Martin from bitter rivals Arsenal.
The Gunners made several attempts to try and keep the teenager in North London but he opted to ditch them in favour of sealing a transfer to United.
Unsurprisingly, Obi-Martin has been prolific for United’s under-18s. On Tuesday, the striker made his debut for the club’s under-21s, when he came on from the bench and registered an assist for Amir Ibragimov within a mere two minutes.
Obi-Martin is considered to be among the best and brightest prospects in the country and as such, this has also elicited debate about which nation he’ll choose to represent.
Obi-Martin was born in Denmark and has already represented them from under-16 to under-21 levels so far.
However, he is also eligible to play for Nigeria and England.
Speaking to BT, Heiner-Møller conceded that losing the United starlet would be a terrible blow for Denmark.
Heiner-Møller said, “We absolutely believe that he can become a top player. He has some finishing skills that are pretty fierce. And then he has a wild physique.”
“That [losing him] would be very sad. If we were a club, we could offer him a bigger contract, better terms, a bigger car and a villa. But we are not a club, so we can only offer him to play in a Danish national team shirt.”
“There is not much we can do.”
Heiner-Møller added that Obi-Martin will not be called up to Denmark’s senior set-up simply because they’re keen on convincing him to look past England and Nigeria.
“I hope that Chido will play for the Danish national team. But I can guarantee you that he will never, ever be selected for the senior team only with the aim of tying him to Denmark.”
“I’m well aware there are some other countries that look at this sort of thing differently. And there will probably be some who think that it is unambitious and frivolous of us.”
“But there are just other things that count more for us. We are not going to bind anyone to a national team that they do not want to represent in the long term.”
Meanwhile, Ruben Amorim and his United stars are back in action on Saturday when they take on Nottingham Forest.
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