West Ham target Henry Onyekuru could face a challenge acquiring a work permit this summer, adding another hurdle to the Hammer’s pursuit of the highly rated Nigerian youngster.
Onyekuru – who finished as the Belgian First Division’s joint top scorer last season – could face a challenge to obtain a work permit as he does not automatically qualify on the percentage of senior international matches for his national team. The 20-year-old was only recently called up to the Nigeria squad and has won only one senior cap.
FA rule state that players under the age of 21 must have played a certain percentage of matches one the past calendar year for the national side in order to qualify for a work permit. In the case on Onyekuru, he would have had to have played 75% of the Super Eagle’s games over the last because of their 38th placed world ranking – a criteria the forward clearly does not meet.
