By Tony Ubani
Nigerian sports minister has raised concerns over the country’s football squad for the Rio Olympics after more than half of the team who qualified the team to the games were left out by coach Samson Siasia.

Solomon Dalung

“The list of the players for Rio is very different from the one who qualified the country for the games,” said sports minister Solomon Dalung.

“It seems our local coaches cannot grow above parochial sentiments.”

Only 10 players from the squad who won the U-23 AFCON in Senegal in December are on the provisional 35-man for the Olympics with the possibility some of them will also not make the final 18-man squad to Brazil.

consecutive Ligue 1 titles. He  also managed Stade Rennais, Paris Saint-Germain, Glasgow Rangers and the Cameroon national team.

A reliable source in the NFF discarded reports of employing a Serbian coach insisting that Paul Le Guen remains their favourite. ‘’Initially, we thought of getting a Serbian. We’ve since moved on and held talks with Le Guen who is enthusiastic on working with the star-studded Super Eagles. He is a gentleman and stickler for discipline’’, our source noted.

Le Guen qualified Cameroon for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where they crashed out in the first round.