Former Birmingham City and Middlesbrough ace in 'serious trouble' as FIFA inflict huge ban

The forward has been banned from international football for six months after an investigation found he was never eligible to play for Equatorial Guinea, the African nation he has played 42 times for.

Formerly of Birmingham and Middlesbrough, Nsue has had a rollercoaster career. The versatile player, earlier a right-back before finding becoming a winger and centre forward, started at Mallorca before his English venture. The last few years have been chaotic, however, with four different clubs joined in Greece and Spain across five seasons.

Nsue has been a hero for Equatorial Guinea for over a decade, with an impressive 23 goals scored in 42 appearances. He was the outright top scorer in the latest Africa Cup of Nations, too, as he netted six in just 1,184 minutes.

But all his efforts have been found to be from a false basis as FIFA have ruled he should never have donned the Equatoguinean red. It’s reasoned that Nsue didn’t have the necessary eligibility due to several competitive appearances at youth level for Spain.

In December 2013, FIFA claimed Nsue was illegible but the player continued to feature for Equatorial Guinea anyway. The West African nation were then stripped of two World Cup 2014 qualification victories and a similar punishment has been inflicted this time around.

Nsue has been fined 150,000 Swiss francs (£131,000) and banned from international duty for six months. Equatorial Guinea, meanwhile, have seen recent wins over Namibia and Liberia defaulted to 3-0 victories for their oppositions – a huge blow as the fixtures were both World Cup 2026 qualifiers. Both of those games were originally won by Nsue goals.