After the draw between the Super Eagles and the Nzalang Nacional in their opening game of AFCON 2023, Ahmed Musa has been defending his teammates.
Nigerian fans were not happy with the result of the match, claiming that the Super Eagles should have done more to win the game.
Even the comments of the Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro, did little to assuage the fans that the team was moving in the right direction, as he claimed that God gives and God takes.
Ahmed Musa has tried to ginger the lads into bouncing back in their next game against the Elephants of Ivory Coast.
The players met after the game to discuss the way forward, but neither Ahmed Musa nor his assistant captains, Willam Troost-Ekong and Kenneth Omeruo, are letting anything out of the bag.
Ahmed Musa has stated his belief in the team to win AFCON 2023.
Our meeting is nobody's business – Ahmed Musa
It was a surprise for media men to see the Super Eagles, led by captain Ahmed Musa, in their first training to meet without the coaches.
After prayers and the usual deliberation, the players asked the coaches to excuse them as they wanted to discuss.
All efforts to find out what they discussed hit a brick wall as none of the players were willing to divulge why they met and what was the bone of contention.
Ahmed Musa, the captain, was direct in his refusal to divulge what they discussed.
“It is our secret, I don't think I'm going to share it,” Ahmed Musa said.
Yesterday before the training, the Super Eagles players held a meeting.
The media and fans reacted to the report and questioned why the meeting was held on the training ground and not at their hotel.
Today, I caught up with team leaders, @Ahmedmusa718, @WTroostEkong &… pic.twitter.com/OSNaPFj5uJ
— Adepoju Tobi Samuel 🇳🇬 (@OgaNlaMedia) January 16, 2024
The Super Eagles captain continued, claiming the players speak a lot, but when it looked like he would let the cat out of the bag, he paused before continuing his statement.
When pressed about why they had the meeting at the training pitch instead of the hotel, he said either way, people would still talk.
“Whatever you do, people will still talk. We wanted to talk on the pitch, and not outside the pitch. So that we'd know the importance of what we're saying,” Ahmed Musa concluded.
Ahmed Musa has continued to ask Nigerians to keep supporting the team.
Troost-Ekong and Omeruo support Ahmed Musa
The vice-captain of the Super Eagles and the on-pitch captain against Equatorial Guinea concurred with his captain, Ahmed Musa.
When posed with the same questions, he defended their stance, wondering what the fuss about their meeting was.
Like Ahmed Musa, he was direct and didn't see why the meeting had to be in the hotel.
Ekong flippantly dismissed the queries posed to him.
Spoke to Emmanuel Adebayor (@E_Adebayor), Nigeria 🇳🇬 skipper Ahmed Musa (@Ahmedmusa718), Simon Moses (@Simon27Moses) and Kelechi Iheanacho (@67Kelechi) on Ghana’s defeat to Cape Verde 🇨🇻. Listen to them closely. #SienuTV #AFCON2023 pic.twitter.com/WHOish9if6
— Sheikh Tophic Sienu (@SheikhTophic) January 16, 2024
“We try not to be influenced by the outside. We have a good camp, a good group. I don't see why I have to explain why we have meetings at certain times. It is up to us to decide what we want to do.”
Kenneth Omeruo was brief in his response. He claimed they were unaware the media would be present, so the meeting was not for photo ops.
“It's a meeting we had to do before our training, and that's it,” Omeruo said.
The Super Eagles will play the hosts Ivory Coast on Thursday.
This article was most recently revised and updated 1 year ago