The 19-year-old, who was eligible to play for England, was photographed shaking hands with Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr ahead of their London friendly with Serbia last week and confirmed his choice to represent the Super Eagles.
“Nigeria has always been a part of me,” United academy graduate Kehinde told the BBC. “I was born there. My whole family are Nigerian. I come from a very strong Nigerian background so the influence has always been around me.
“When you are growing up, when you see players like Jay Jay Okocha, how good he was and the current crop of players such as Alex Iwobi and Super Eagles captain, Mikel, the desire to get the opportunity to play for Nigeria has always been there really.”
Kehinde trained with the United first-team earlier this season and has started 15 times for the Under-23s in the Premier League 2. His strike at Chelsea in September was nominated for the club’s goal of the month competition.
Kehinde played with Marcus Rashford, Axel Tuanzebe and Timothy Fosu-Mensah in the Uefa Youth League two seasons ago before he was promoted to the Reserves.