Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, has appointed CSKA Moscow forward, Ahmed Musa as the national team captain.
Musa, replaced Vincent Enyeama, who was almost expelled from the team’s base camp in Belgium for coming to camp late, but for the intervention of the Nigeria football federation’s authority.
Oliseh led the national team to France ’98 FIFA world cup when Nigeria defeated Spain 3-2 in curtain raiser for the tournament but couldn’t go beyond the second round, losing scandalously to denmark 4-1.
The 41 years old manager, who denied issues with Enyeama on captaincy matter said that the former Kano Pillars’ will serve Nigeria for “several years” as the team captain due to his age.
He further pointed out that Musa “did a great job for us (as captain) in Tanzania.” Oliseh also believes he has named “a very responsible player” as leader of the Super Eagles.
“Well there is no captain tussle. When you have a new government like our honourable president just came in, he’s picked his ministers. And you have your philosophy and you have your way of working.
“As a coach I have looked at the team and I have looked at Nigeria going forward. We need a captain who will think of staying with Nigeria for several years to come, who is regularly in the front. And Ahmed Musa did a great job for us in Tanzania under very difficult circumstance. He is a very responsible player and he is the captain of the team. So he is the captain of the team, there is no question of a tussle.
“The fact that I would like to have somebody (as captain) who is thinking of playing now and not somebody who is preparing for retirement or thinking of after-football. And I think it’s time we had peace and quiet around the Super Eagles. That is why I am glad that most of the players here are finding ways to work as a team because I get the feeling now that they are aware that they are representing 170 million people,” the Nigerian trainer told Brila FM.
However, Oliseh also had a stern warning for players who are not ready to “conform to my guidelines.”
“There is no question of conforming or not. If you don’t conform you go home. As far as I am concerned we are not here to build stars, we are here to build a national team. I’ve been there and I know what it is like to be a captain. As a captain you lead by example. And when a coach comes and picks a captain, everybody has to follow it. If you don’t conform to my guidelines; how I want us to play, how I want us to behave and how I want us to carry Nigeria forward then we will be friends but from afar,” said Oliseh.
Musa will now begin his tenure as Super Eagles captain when the team play an international friendly match against DR Congo on Thursday and follow up with another game with Cameroon on Sunday. Both games hold in Belgium.
Nigerian Bulletin
