As part of the fallout from the Super Eagles inability to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, there are reports that CSKA Moscow forward, Ahmed Musa, was pressured into stepping down as skipper of the team.
Musa, 23, was controversially made captain in October by erstwhile coach, Sunday Oliseh, replacing Lille shot stopper, Vincent Enyeama, to whom incumbent skipper John Obi Mikel was assistant.
Africanfootball now claims the 28-year-old, who declined the opportunity to deputise for the former Kano Pillars man, threatened to quit the team if he wasn’t made head of the team.
The Chelsea midfielder made his proposition known to interim boss, Samson Siasia, and top officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) before the game against Egypt in Kaduna – of which they all succumbed to and ordered Musa to let go of the captaincy.
“Mikel made it very clear to Siasia he be made captain if the coach wanted him to play the crucial matches against Egypt,” Africanfootball quotes an NFF source as saying.
Siasia would then hold a private meeting with Musa in his hotel room in Kaduna on the same matter.
“The meeting was for 30, 40 minutes, just Siasia and Ahmed. And it was in that meeting that it was made clear to the player to give up the captaincy.”
Immediately after this tete-a-tete, Musa expectedly bowed to the pressure and announced Mikel as the new captain in a press conference same day.
“Something happened before I was made the captain of the Super Eagles then. There was a mix-up,” Musa said before AFCON qualifier in Kaduna.
“But right now, we have a new administration. Mikel is my senior and a big brother. So, Mikel is the captain, not me.”
Mikel in return praised Musa saying “It takes a man to come out and do what Ahmed Musa has done today. So, I commend him a lot for doing that”.
Both players are yet to make any comment on the latest revelation.
