Rarely-seen Nottingham Forest 22-year-old earns call-up, he’ll be desperate to impress

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Rarely-seen Nottingham Forest midfielder Braian Ojeda has been called up by Paraguay to play in two forthcoming friendlies. The nation won’t be heading to the World Cup but have arranged two friendlies against Peru and Colombia.

It was perhaps something of a shock that Paraguay didn’t qualify. The squad is relatively young though and perhaps Ojeda will get a chance to play at a World Cup later in his career.

The youngster won’t have much time to prepare for the first friendly. Paraguay face Peru in the early hours of Thursday morning, before facing Colombia on Sunday at the same time.

Ojeda will be relishing another chance to get some minutes under his belt. He joined Real Salt Lake City from Forest in the summer but made just seven appearances for the team.

In the summer of 2021, he swapped Olimpia in his homeland for Forest. His first season at the City Ground was a frustrating one, with the 22-year-old making just three appearances for the Reds.

Ojeda was very much a Dane Murphy signing. He brought the midfielder to the Championship and it was perhaps expected that he’d feature more during last season.

Still, he looked pretty useful in the games he played. It was just that Steve Cooper preferred other players to feature in midfield as Forest hunted down promotion to the Premier League.

With the MLS season now over, Ojeda will be thankful for a chance to play two more games. Now, he will hope to get on the pitch in both games for his country over the next few days.

Ojeda earns Paraguay call-up

The World Cup qualifying campaign was a miserable one for Paraguay. They won just two of their 12 fixtures and were a million miles away from qualification.

Now, it’s a case of pushing reset for the nation. As a result, the country could favour youth and that could see the door swing open for Ojeda in the next couple of years.

The challenge for the player is to try and find some roots. He has a long-term contract at the City Ground but it’s unlikely he will play for the club whilst they remain in the Premier League.

In the short term, he will hope to star for Paraguay. In the next few months, it will be interesting to see how things develop in terms of his form with whichever club he’s at for the second half of the campaign.