Nigeria Football Federation president, Amaju Pinnick has paid tribute to Super Eagles captain, Mikel Obi calling him ‘super leader’ for the national team.
Pinnick said they had problems in the squad in the past where there were many leaders, but Mikel has been able to mould the team into one Super Eagles outfit.
“Mikel Obi has been super,” added Pinnick. “He has carried the team so well and they believe in him.”
“We are very happy with what we have been able to mould together because it is very rare in Nigeria. In the past, you’ve had several leaders in the Super Eagles but now we have just one Super Eagles.
“The team spirit is what has been counting for us on the field and off the field.”
The NFF president also reiterated that Nigeria are targeting a place in the semi-finals in Russia next year and says they are putting more plans in place to achieve that aim.
Last month, the players and federation signed an agreement concerning the payment structure for the 2018 World Cup in a bid to avoid the problems that have often blighted African teams’ participation at past World Cups.
“The players were part of it from the beginning. We sat down and negotiated, we didn’t just say – ‘put your signature on this,'” Pinnick explained.
“We gave them the document to go and study and they spoke among themselves and made a little adjustment before they signed it.
“We want to make sure we don’t have any mistakes going to the World Cup. We are going to have a press conference (on 11 December) to reveal our roadmap to Russia – all the friendly games that we have earmarked.
“We will play a minimum of five games leading up to the World Cup. They will all be strong technical teams and we have based our choices on some of the teams in our group.”
Nigeria open their World Cup Group D campaign against Croatia on 16 June, followed by Iceland on 22 June before finishing with Argentina four days later.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
