KEY POINTS:
Ryan Nelsen again faces a club-or-country dilemma.
Eight years after missing out on his chance to play at an Olympic Games - as a member of the national under-23 team narrowly beaten home and away by South Africa on the road to the Sydney Olympics - Nelsen is eyeing the step on to the big stage in Beijing.
One of half a dozen players earmarked by national under-23 coach Stu Jacobs to fill the three mandatory over-age spots in the 18-player squad, Nelsen is keen to play. But first he must work things through with his Blackburn Rovers boss Mark Hughes.
"We have not discussed it at all," said Nelsen, 30, from his English home yesterday. "I'm sure within a couple of hours of this story appearing, the reporters here will be on to it and I'm going to be pulled into the office. I haven't said anything so far because I have been waiting to get the exact dates from Stu."
Nelsen, captain and ending his fourth season at Blackburn and facing a crucial game against Premier League leaders Manchester United this weekend, accepts it is a delicate situation with the Olympic football tournament clashing with the start of the 2008-09 season. But it is obvious where Nelsen wants to be.
"To go to an Olympics is every sportsperson's dream. It is pretty special. I think everyone given the chance would want to go to an Olympics. I know, given the chance, I certainly would want to go."
Jacobs will name a 25-player squad early next week from which his final selection will come.
He has already said Nelsen, Fulham's Simon Elliott and Chris Killen, at Celtic, are his first choices. He will also name Tony Lochhead and Shane Smeltz (from the Wellington Phoenix) in that enlarged squad. Nelsen accepts he has been torn at times since joining Blackburn from the MLS in the United States.
"The timing of All Whites games hasn't been great especially in those first couple of years when I really wanted to sort out my career here," said Nelsen.
"Some of the things I was expected to do were pretty unrealistic. I'm now keen to play World Cup/Confederation Cup games under Ricki Herbert, especially now he is his own man."
There were problems in the past when he was largely influenced by [former New Zealand Soccer director of football] Paul Smalley.
"He set soccer in New Zealand back 10 years. Sometimes these people who go to New Zealand from England feel they know it all.
"It can be the same in reverse. Just because you are a New Zealander doesn't mean you're an expert on rugby."
Nelsen, now a dad - an awesome experience - to 5-month-old Maxwell, sees the chance to play in Beijing as a great opportunity for young New Zealand players.
"It is a big tournament and the chance to get noticed."
Of his own path, through the university system and then the MLS in the States on to the premiership, Nelsen says: "If I had to do it again I would do it exactly the same way.
"It is brutally tough in the premiership. It is incredibly tough to get a contract. It is not just about the football. There are so many more talented players than me who haven't made it," said Nelsen. "You get found out pretty quickly."
Somewhat ironically, three players Nelsen played against in those South African games are now at Blackburn but this time he is the only one with a chance to go to the Olympics, and he wants to take it.
