TheCable

Samson Siasia, head coach of the Nigerian U23 national team nicknamed the ‘Dream Team’, says he did not drop Mikel Obi from his squad list to the 2008 Olympics.

Siasia, who was speaking with TheCable on Thursday to address reports that he was eyeing some players for the soccer event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, also said he had yet to decide his team to the championship.

Recalling the episode with John Mikel Obi, who did not play at the 2008 Olympics, Siasia said: “I didn’t drop Mikel then. He didn’t come for the qualifiers. And I said if you don’t come for the qualifiers, why will you want to be part of it.

“I told him that if he didn’t play these two matches, then he won’t go. If you don’t work, you cannot come and eat now. What about the guys that played for us to qualify?”

On reports that Odion Ighalo and Obi were in his plans for the Olympics, he said: “I don’t know where all that is coming from. I said I can’t invite players now. I have to look at my team first.

“You keep talking about Ighalo and Mikel. What I said is that if Ighalo keeps to the form like he has right now, that he will be one of my candidates. That’s what I told them. I don’t know where the name of Mikel came into play.”

On the U-23 African Championship 2015 he won, Siasia admitted that the tournament was tough.

“We struggled from the beginning of the tournament, yes. But we kept getting better and better as the tournament progressed,” he said.

“The determination and dedication of the players in spite of all the challenges we faced got us through; we just wanted to make Nigeria proud by qualifying for the Olympics, which is the most important thing.

“It is service to the country and ourselves. It was a difficult time but what can you do? And if we do not qualify with all the challenges, it means we’ve lost twice. And thank God we qualified.”

He reiterated that preparations for Rio 2016 Games hadn’t begun, saying: “No! You have to start and see the kind of players you have before you’ll start thinking of how you will make it. Are you not going to play? Because it is the players that you pick that will play.

“Right now, I don’t have anything to tell you about how we are going to go far; it is only when you have the players that you can determine what you will have to do from the quality of players that you have.”