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By Ebenezer Bajela
Former Super Eagles captain and coach, Samson Siasia, has lifted the lid on the national U-23 team’s ugly experiences in Atlanta during preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Siasia made the revelation during a podcast with ex-international Emmanuel Babayaro and journalist Matthew Edafe on Saturday.
The 1994 AFCON winner qualified Nigeria for the 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games in Beijing and Rio, winning silver and bronze medals respectively.
However, the bronze-medal winning team is famously remembered for arriving in Brazil just hours before their first game at the Olympics and started their campaign with a 5-4 victory over Japan.
Speaking of their ordeal while preparing for the Olympics, Siasia said the team went through hell.
“I am special in the area of taking care of the players compared to other coaches because I spend my money to make sure that the boys are okay,” he said.
“I buy them toothpastes, and toothbrushes whenever we travel out and even give them $100 each from my pocket. Do you think they (players) are playing for Nigeria? No, they are playing for me.
“Your players are looking up to you and you can’t let them down, I made the boys who they are today, I put them in a platform where people can see them, if not who is going to buy a player that is playing in the Nigerian league.”
He added, “The things I have done to get the players to where they are is out of the ordinary because I care about the players.
“Before travelling to Brazil, I had to use my connections in the US to get the team to travel; Nigerians abroad are so nice and patriotic because many of them would come out to ask what happened. When we went to training, before we came back they would have thrown our things out of the hotel. To eat was also a problem, and Nigerian boys that had restaurants would cook and bring food for us to eat.
“Imagine the (then) minister saying he didn’t know where we were and claimed that I took the boys to my house.”
On the flight hitches before the squad eventually flew to Rio from Atlanta, Siasia added, “As regards the plane issue, we were supposed to arrive a week before the Olympics but there was no money and a Nigerian, Yemi Idowu, chartered a plane for us. Up till now the NFF hasn’t paid him back the $250,000 and now the guy is angry with me. I called him and apologised to him, explaining that we should have paid him the money but the money had disappeared.”