New coach of the U23 team, Samson Siasia has said that players from the Nigeria Professional Football League would form the base of his team for the qualifying series for both the All African Games and the Olympic Games.

The trainer said that in as much as he has absolute trust in the availability of football talents in the country, he was also mindful of the fact that the AAG and 2016 Olympics qualifying series are not FIFA-listed tournaments.

He stated that in other to get the right kind of players to be invited for screening, he had contacted all the coaches of the various clubs in the premier league to give him names of very good players in their clubs.

"I have to start an early preparation so that we can pick the best players through elimination by substitution so that we can begin blending of the team before the qualifiers which is billed to commence in February 2015," Siasia disclosed.

Meanwhile, the former Super Eagles coach maintained that he is not shutting the door on the foreign-based players as they would be joining the team at a later date when they would be ready to go for the major championship.

"The foreign based players, especially some of them in the Super Eagles camp who are still within the age limit, would still make the team but that would be at very crucial point or when we must have qualified.

“The problem is that our competition is not under FIFA, so securing their release would be very difficult. But we are sure to get them when we eventually qualify," Siasia told SportingLife.

This is Siasia’s second stint in charge of the U23s. He led the team to winning silver at the Beijing Olympics Games.

http://m.goal.com/s/en-ng/news/5316471