Abuja – Head Coach of Nigeria’s Olympic men’s football team, Samson Siasia, has appointed Mikel Obi as captain of the team billed to participate at the 31st Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
A statement posted on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) website on Sunday disclosed that Siasia made the announcement on Saturday while meeting with the players and other officials.
The statement quoted the coach as saying Mikel’s choice was automatic as he was the captain of the Super Eagles and also the captain of Team Nigeria to the Games.
“It’s just natural for me to pick Mikel as our captain. Aside the fact that he is the captain of the Super Eagles, he is also Team Nigeria captain.
“So, after meeting with both of them and explaining my position, I am pleased to say Azubuike who has been our captain understood and was happy to hand over the captain’s band to Mikel.
“It is a thing of joy for my team to produce the first footballer to captain Team Nigeria to the Olympics. This, to me, is more than gratifying.”
The statement further said the players unanimously accepted Mikel as their captain and expressed delight at the role he has been playing since he joined the team.
On his part, Mikel expressed joy at being made the captain of the Dream Team and said he sees it as an honour that must yield result in Brazil.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria under-23 side will now depart Atlanta, U.S. for Rio on Monday.
The Nigerian Observer recalls that the earlier arrangement was for the team to depart for Brazil in batches due to difficulties in securing seats for team.
However, according to the statement, the NFF decided against that and was thinking of either taking the whole team to Brazil or chartering a private plane for it.
The plane will take them directly to Manaus, the venue of the team’s first match.
