Iwobi reveals Bassey encouraged him to join Fulham

 Apart from the influence of his former manager Marco Silva who is now the manager at Fulham another factor that made Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi move from Liverpool to London was the encouragement of his national teammate Calvin Bassey.

The Nigeria international, who is currently nursing a hamstring injury, joined Fulham on a five-year deal from Everton last week in a deal worth €22m.

Iwobi is expected to make his debut for Fulham after the international break and the 27-year-old revealed that his Super Eagles teammates would be happy to see him when he returned from country duty due to their conversation before he put pen to paper with the Cottagers.

“I spoke to Calvin a lot in the previous week and he told me to hurry up and that they were waiting for me and I am sure he will be excited to see me eventually when he returns from the international break,” Iwobi said in an interview with Fulham media team.

In four seasons at the club, Iwobi made 123 Premier League appearances for Everton, scoring six times. He was named Players’ Player of the Season and was one of the Toffees’ best players as Everton narrowly avoided relegation last season.

The 27-year-old played the whole 90 minutes as Everton lost 1-0 at home to Fulham on the opening day of the Premier League season.

But he picked up a hamstring injury in Everton’s 4-0 loss against Aston Villa and missed his former club’s 1-0 defeat at home to Wolves last week.