Former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has revealed how he forced former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr to pick Ahmed Musa in his team for the 2018 World Cup, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Pinnick speaking on the sidelines of the Africa Player Of The Year award ceremony shortly after Ademola Lookman was crowned the winner of the award revealed the role he played in convincing the 27 year old to play for Nigeria.
“I recall just before he (Lookman) played his first game for Nigeria. There were documents / correspondence he needed. I had to rush to Ikoyi club to meet his dad in ensuring I get it personally”, he told France based Nigerian journalist Ojora Babatunde in Morocco.
“I was to do this interview last week but I don’t want to sway, you know. I wanted it to be organic. A lot of people called me to talk about this last week but I wanted everything to be organic and thankfully it turned out well. Like I said we are all proud of him and I hope this will be the start of better things for him.
He went further to reveal the role he played in ensuring that Musa who became wasn’t dropped from the team by former coach Gernot Rohr before the tournament.
” When I was in the NFF, I recall when Ahmed Musa was to be dropped three matches to the world cup because he wasn’t playing for Leicester you know and a lot of issues. I called the coach and said I don’t intervene but Musa must go for this international friendly game. He said why, I said this is my own slot he must go. I said let him be the 24th player and guess what Musa was the hero at the world cup in 2018″.
