Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho has lavished praise on Desmond Solanke, the powerfully-built striker of Nigerian ancestry who made his European Champions League debut during Wednesday’s 6-0 drubbing of visiting NK Maribor 6-0 at Stamford Bridge in the third round of the competition. The fair-skinned lad came on in the 73rd minute for Brazilian Oscar when Chelsea were already 4-0 up and helped his ream to go on to win 6-0.

Mourinho later said: “Solanke is in the phase of the talent that we know that is there, but is far from being there.

“For him it was also a perfect situation. Something he never forgets and for sure he’s

going to play many, many Champions League matches, because he’ll be a very good player.”

Who actually is Desmond Solanke? Wikipedia wrote about him: “Solanke has represented England at under-16, under-17, and under-18 levels.

“In May 2014, Solanke was part of the England squad that won the 2014 UEFA European

Under-17 Championship, scoring four goals in four appearances including strikes in the semi-final and final, and finishing as the tournament’s joint top-scorer.”

Even though the youngster has represented England at several youth levels in the past he is still eligible to play for his fatherland Nigeria if he improves his game and provided he doesn’t feature for England’s senior team.

Earlier this year, Mourinho had said he would blame himself if Solanke doesn’t go ahead to become a senior England international under his management.

With the Super Eagles expecting a new foreign Technical Adviser soon, a part of the coach’s brief would be to scout for top Nigerian players the world over. Monitoring young talents with links to the country like Solanke and keeping some form of preliminary contacts with them at these early moments could be beneficial to the football aspirations of the country and see to it that Mourinho only gets a part of his wish which is to make Solanke a senior international.

•Photo shows young Nigerian star Dominic Solanke of Chelsea.

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