Karabumruk of Turkey winger, Ahmed Musa will enter Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier away to Cape Verde with sagging spirit, following reports that he may not have acquired 99 caps with the Super Eagles after all, megasportsarena.com gathered.
Instead of the well-celebrated mark of one short of a centurion that would put him alongside Joseph Ikpo Yobo and Vincent Enyeama as Nigeria’s most capped players ever, a statement by world soccer governing body, FIFA, disclosed that the winger-cum-attacker actually has only 97 appearances for his country.
This in contrast with widespread reports that the Super Eagles’ substantive captain is now just one match away from hitting the 100 games mark with the Nigerian national team, following his substitute role against Liberia on Friday.
The disparity in number of matches the former Kano Pillars, VV Van Venlo of Netherlands, CSKA Moscow of Russia, Leicester City of England and Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia player has is reportedly due to two of his appearances with the Eagles not been documented by FIFA.
The world soccer body apparently did not consider as official a friendly Nigeria played against Togo in June 2017, when Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr made nine substitutes, while the Eagles’ 2018 World Cup qualifier against Algeria was later cancelled.
The match was declared null and void because Nigeria fielded Abdullahi Shehu, who had been rendered ineligible due to accumulated cards, consequent to which the game was forfeited by the Eagles and Algeria were awarded three points in the board room.
Those two matches are now weighing against Musa, to the extent that his much-touted milestone of 100 games in Nigeria’s colours might not be authentic after all, and he would only be gunning for his 98th cap should he got to star against Cape Verde on Tuesday.
A report by allnigeriasoccer.com added: “Bearing it in mind that a friendly against Togo back in June 2017 wasn’t recognized by FIFA because manager Gernot Rohr utilized nine substitutes.
“(Since it was) three more than the limit permitted by the football’s world governing body, former Leicester City striker Ahmed Musa could earn his 98th cap tomorrow (on Tuesday).
“In the eyes of FIFA, Musa is currently on 97 caps as the 2018 World Cup qualifier against Algeria, in which Musa featured, wasn’t recognized by the Zurich based organization because Nigeria fielded an ineligible player Abdullahi Shehu.
“The match was declared to be forfeited and awarded 3-0 in favour of Algeria, with the NFF also receiving a fine of CHF 6 000.”
