Fresh facts have emerged that Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi actually insisted he will only feature in the AFCON qualifiers against Egypt if he were made Super Eagles captain, and coach Samson Siasia and top officials thereafter pressured Ahmed Musa to relinquish the armband.
Mikel was assistant captain to Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama when former coach Sunday Oliseh picked Ahmed Musa as the country’s new captain in October.
According to AfricanFootball.com, it was scooped that Mikel demanded the Eagles captaincy when he spoke with caretaker coach Siasia prior to the matches against Egypt.
“Mikel made it very clear to Siasia he be made captain if the coach wanted him to play the crucial matches against Egypt,” a top source informed.
Pressure was thereafter mounted on Ahmed Musa to surrender the Eagles captaincy.
Also, it was specially gathered that a top official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) advised Ahmed Musa “to give them their captaincy”.
Siasia would then hold a private meeting with Ahmed 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,” a top source further told AfricanFootball.com
Immediately after this tete-a-tete, coach and player headed to the press conference where Ahmed Musa announced Mikel as new Eagles skipper while accepting that there was “a mix-up” when more senior players were overlooked for the leadership of the team.