Oliseh wants 18 foreign pros for Tanzania

super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh has proposed a squad of 18 overseas-based professionals and five players from the domestic league for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Tanzania.

However, there are suggestions that Oliseh should accommodate more players from the league for the match against the Taifa Stars.

“Oliseh wants to list 18 professionals from overseas for the match in Tanzania, while five places will be left for the players in the local league. But some officials have asked that he increases the number of the players from the league,” a top official informed AfricanFootball.com.

The Nigeria Football Federation’s Technical Committee Chairman, Chief Felix Anyasi-Agwu, told The PUNCH that the list of the players in the Nigerian league has already been cleared for the coach.

He said, “The list of those coming in from Europe or elsewhere has not been submitted to us and there’s no problem with that. He is still working and talking with the players he wants and he needs the time to get the right people.

“What has been dealt with is the squad coming in from the domestic league and that had to be settled first, obviously because they are resuming first and that had to be taken care of first. They are getting into camp by August 17. It is not about a few of them but a full team because they have to critically look at the players and pick exactly those they want with regard to the level of the competition. And so everything is working out well.”

Oliseh and his assistants will trim the squad down to the number they want for Dar es Salaam.

The overseas-based pros are expected to fly directly to Tanzania, where they will join up with the coaches and the players from the league.

The new Eagles coach has maintained that Nigeria must beat Tanzania in Dar es Salaam to raise hopes of qualifying for the 2017 finals holding in Gabon.

He said, “It is going to be very, very difficult, but I believe we can qualify. All we have to do is look at ourselves, try to improve our game and hopefully we will qualify.”

Nigeria won the opening game against Chad 2-0 in the qualifying series. Rivals Egypt are leading Nigeria in the group by goals difference. Nigeria under Stephen Keshi failed to qualify for the 2015 edition held in Equatorial Guinea.

PUNCH