Siasia hands Awoniyi, Musa, others Friday deadline to join U-23 camp

Head Coach of the U-23 national team, Samson Siasia, has given all invited home-based members of the Flying Eagles team that went to the FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand tomorrow deadline to report to the team’s camp or forget the invitation.

Expressing anger at the attitude of the players to the invitation, Siasia said he could not understand why players, who called to beg for permission to see their families and rest a little, would fail to report to camp after the one -week grace he granted.

“No player can hold the nation to ransom. This attitude of theirs is unprofessional. When the players arrived from the U-20 World Cup, they called me to beg for a grace period to rest a little, which I did, and they promised to report after one week.

It is now more than one week and none of them is around,” he said. Siasia disclosed that the deadline is to give the players the benefit of doubt.

The players, including Captain Musa Mohammed, strikers Godwin Saviour and Taiwo Awoniyi and goalkeeper Dele Alampasu, who are based at home, were initially told to report to camp on June 22, while the overseas-based players, Kingsley Sokari, Musa Yahaya, Kelechi Iheanacho and Moses Simon have been given until two weeks to the African U-23 Championship qualifier against Congo billed for Port Harcourt on July 19.

Already, Sharks FC defender Chima Akas and his Warri Wolves counterpart, Semiu Liadi alongside the overseas-based Umar Aminu, Shehu Abdullahi and Ikechukwu Okorie have all reported to camp, cutting short their break.

Meanwhile, Coach Siasia has denied reports in the media that he has invited a Norway-based defender, Sola Akinyemi to the team, saying before any player is invited from abroad to any of the national teams, the NFF would give the nod for such invitation.