Nigerian Under20 men’s national team head coach, John Obuh, has explained why he left out the duo of Mohammed Aliyu and Stanley Okoro from his final 21-man team to Colombia 2011.

Obuh explained that Aliyu and Okoro did not impress him at the 2011 African Youth Championship (AYC) in South Africa.The Nigerian trainer said the two players allowed themselves to be distracted by work permit issues for their bases in Europe. The former Niger Tornadoes coach also revealed that during the pre-World Cup camp of the Flying Eagles in Nigeria Aliyu and Okoro still did not impress in training sessions.

Obuh added that a third player from the Under17 team, Ramon Azeez nearly missed the squad to the Fifa Under20 World Championship before he turned a new leaf. However, the coach expressed disappointment that the duo decided to sacrifice representing Nigeria for individual interest.

“Two of the players from the U17 team, Stanley Okoro and Mohammed Aliyu, did not make it to Colombia. Their performance at the AYC was not very good. They fell below expectations.

“Ramon Azeez was also affected a bit but he picked up somehow and came back to a certain level. While we were training in Nigeria, I could not find anything reasonable with both Okoro and Aliyu.

“They were too distracted by their issue(work permit applications to Spain) and I warned them that if I leave Nigeria for Portugal and they failed to come along with the rest of the team, I will not include them in my final squad because they are not playing in any club.

“Ramon was a bit different though he too is not playing for any club. And when I looked at the whole scenario, I found out that he is being dragged (into the whole issue) and does not know what he wants.