Siasia parleys Liverpool, Man City for Awoniyi, Iheanacho

In from Nifemi Daniel …

U23 Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, has revealed that he has begun talks with Liverpool and Manchester City to secure the release of Nigeria duo of Taiwo Awoniyi and Kelechi Iheanacho for the Africa U-23 championship in Senegal in November.

Nigeria will engage Algeria, Senegal and Mali for the three Rio 2016 Olympic Games slots slated for Africa.

According to the former Super Eagles striker, “We have started talking to their clubs about the importance of the qualifiers and we hope they see reasons. At least we left them out of the AAG.”

He said his bronze winning team in Congo did not play badly but were shy in front of goal.

Read also: Dogara wants early preparations for 2016 Olympics

“This why we are bringing few foreign based players to enhance their goal scoring chances. If you don’t score goals you cannot win games,” he said.

Siasia added that he hoped to retain most members of the bronze winning team.

Asked if he still hopes to bring in more domestic league players, he replied that he was ready if such players can play themselves in with nine months gone.

Siasia posited that the invitation of other players would increase competition for positions.

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