Siasia Invites Arsenal’s Iwobi, 8 Others For Gabon

                    Coach of the national U-23 men’s football teamin Nigeria, Samson Siasia had invited Arsenal’s teenage sensation, Alex Iwobi and eight other foreign based players for the crucial first leg All Africa Games qualifying game against Gabon.
The match will be played in Libreville and it has been fixed tentatively for 22 February.

According to a media statement, coach Siasia explained that the invited foreign based players were selected from the batch who came for the screening in November and December last year. Imoh Ezekiel of Standard Liege of Belgium and Japheth Okirie of Hadley FC, England were selected based on their club performance.

Meanwhile, five home based players in camp were dropped for not meeting up with the required standard of the team but the former Super Eagles coach assured them that if they improved on their game, they could be recalled to join the team.

The dropped home based players are goalkeeper Isah Mas’ud, Effiong Emmanuel Etim, Godwin Odibo, Adetunji Sunday and Yahaya Adamu.

“For now we are expected to go to Gabon with 18 players, so only the best will make this team, there will be no automatic shirt for anybody, as both the home based and their foreign counterparts will have to battle for the slots,” Siasia confirmed.

Speaking further, he said: “We have released all the home based players whose clubs are involved in continental games this weekend, but they should all be back in camp by Monday, when hopefully all the foreign based players invited would also have reported to camp, then we will raise the stake”.

The invited foreign based players are; Gero Salisu Abdullahi, Iwobi Alexander Chuka, Atanda Sodiq Oluwole, Oshobe Oladele, Salisu Sadiq Popoola, Ezekiel Imoh, Paul Onwachi Ebere, Aminu Umar and Japheth Okirie.