Leeds United manager Daniel Farke will have a small squad to work with in the coming days as several of his important players have already left to join their national team camps for the international.
However, Noah Okafor is not one of the players who are with the national team at this time of the year, despite making a good start to life in the Premier League with Leeds. He made his debut when he came off the bench against Arsenal in the 5-0 defeat at the Emirates.
Since then, he has started in each Premier League game and has scored two goals. However, it was not enough for him to find a place in the Switzerland squad during this international break.
It was the same in September with Murat Yakin, who has been left unimpressed with Okafor and some of the things he has done, both on and off the pitch.
The Leeds United star has earned the ire of the Switzerland boss
Switzerland team director Pierluigi Tami has insisted that selecting the squad is Yakin’s prerogative, and it is up to him who he wants in his team.
“That’s actually a question for Murat Yakin. Murat has decided in his head who will be a regular starter and who won’t”, Pierluigi Tami told Swiss daily Blick.
“It’s important for us that everyone in the national team is happy, regardless of what role the coach assigns them.”
However, it has emerged that Yakin was already unhappy about the winger’s ‘bad mood, questionable behaviour, and poor training performances.’
The winger has added more fuel to the fire by contacting Tami directly to discuss his absence from the Switzerland national team.
The head coach was further infuriated when Okafor bypassed him and contacted the team director directly.
Okafor is the only Swiss player to score more than once in Europe’s top leagues, but he is not in the national team squad.
His attitude issues could cost him a place in the Switzerland squad in the World Cup next year, if they qualify.
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