Chelsea winger Callum-Hudson Odoi will not switch allegiance from England to Ghana despite various reports indicating that the youngster will switch to represent the West African giants.

Odoi will continue to compete for a spot in the England squad, despite missing in Gareth Southgate’s list of players for almost two years now.

The 20-year-old last featured in the England team in November 2019 and has since been sidelined mostly due to a lack of playing minutes under both Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel.

Callum Hudson-Odoi has struggled for playtime under both Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea.
PHOTO: Courtesy

A few weeks ago at the start of EURO 2020, Odoi traveled to Ghana where he has family roots and spent several days there and that is when reports emerged that he is planning to switch his allegiance to represent the 2014 world cup quarter-finalists.

The reports further suggested that the winger was frustrated at racial attacks towards Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka who missed crucial penalties to hand Italy the EURO 2020 Trophy.

Odoi last represented England in November 2019, even starting against Montenegro, calling it a dream come true.
PHOTO: Courtesy

According to Athletic UK, Odoi will not switch his allegiance and is not planning to do so.

However, Ghana FA President Kurt Okraku said he is keen to convince Odoi to switch to the Ghana national team.

“I spoke with Callum before he got to Ghana, and we promised to speak again when we meet in Ghana, we have met, we’ve had discussions that centred beyond playing for Ghana, and he has a crazy ambition of helping kids in Ghana and this is what excites me the most,” said Okraku in a televised interview in Ghana.

He added, “We are looking forward to working with Odoi and his family and many other players who are interested in representing their country. We have a lot of them like that, we are talking to the technical team and the political authorities in getting them to play for Ghana.”

The right-footed winger on his part refused the claims he is planning to switch to Ghana saying, “I think obviously when you’re young, you have the opportunity to play for England throughout all the years, from under 15 to under 16 all the way up, when they obviously gave me the opportunity to come I was in the country already. It’s something that I already had in my mind, set on already playing for England.”

Callum also said he does not know what the future holds but he is currently representing England. “So it was the thing obviously choosing Ghana or England, and at the end of the day, I said I always had the right people around me who always advise me – what’s right, what’s wrong. England came and I said yeah, let me go and play for my country. But I said Ghana is my home as well, so we’ll see, we’ll see. You never know,” he said.

Odoi is eligible to switch to Ghana as FIFA rules state that players are still able to switch nations even if they have already represented one country, but only if the player in question has fewer than three caps and all were earned before they turned 21 which is in the case with Callum Hudson-Odoi.