Super Eagles’ captain, Ahmed Musa has decided his 100th cap with the Nigerian national team to his family, teammates, officials and fans, without whom he admitted he would not have been able to achieve the feat, megasportsarena.com reports.
Making his emotions known in the wake of the Eagles’ 2-0 victory away to Central African Republic (CAR) on Sunday, Musa went on to acknowledged that he felt double-elated that his landmark outing in green-and-white came on an evening the Nigerian squad returned to winning ways.
Indeed, the match played in Douala, Cameroon came only three days after the Eagles lost 1-0 to same team on home soil at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, such that the skipper and his pals knew that they just had to go for broke in order to achieve redemption.
That was achieved with first half goals from Leon Aderemi Balogun and Victor Osimhen, after which Musa, who now plays for Fatih Karagumruk of Turkey and got 67 minutes of action in the win on Sunday, said he was honoured becoming only the third Nigerian centurion.
The former Kano Pillars, VV Van Venlo of Netherlands, CSKA Moscow of Russia, Leicester City of England and Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia ace had initially been credited with the mark against Cape Verde in September.
The verdict, though, was erased back then by world soccer governing body, FIFA, which did not recognise his caps against Togo in June 2017 and versus Algeria in November of same year.
The global soccer sanctioning body explained back then the Eagles’ friendly against The Hawks was not a FIFA-graded game, while a World Cup qualifier against The Desert Foxes had been cancelled when Nigeria fielded an ineligible player.
However, the fleet-footed star, who is Nigeria’s top scorer in World Cup outings, with four goals to his name, got his date in history on Sunday, as he started the game and lasted beyond an hour.
That cemented legendary status for the icon from Edo State, who was born in Jos, but got his career breakthrough in Kano and got his first international outing for Nigeria at the 2011 FFIA U-20 World Cup in Colombia.
He then made his senior debut on August 5, 2010 in a qualification match for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations against Madagascar, against which he went on as a substitute for John Mikel Obi in Nigeria’s 2-0 win and the rest is now history.
Musa, who was replaced in the second half of Sunday’s match by Chidera Ejuke, who, incidentally, now plays for CSKA Moscow, took to social media to celebrate his milestone, as he posted: “Wow! What can I say?
“I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without the support of my family, teammates, the officials and my fans.
“To crown it all, important three points in our game. Thank you so much, I don’t take any of this for granted. We will continue to make history and secure wins.”
