•By Musbau Rasak
Former Super Eagles captain, John Mikel Obi; and current captain, Ahmed Musa were selected in the Africa Team of the Decade put together by Supersport, South Africa based cable TV channel. Both were the only Nigerian players in the team.
While there were places for both Mikel and Musa, notable players surprisingly missing were Mohammed Sallah and Riyadh Mahrez, current and past winners of the African Footballer of the Year award respectively.
Apart from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire also had two players each while Egypt, Gabon and Morocco had one player each. Surprisingly there were no players from Cameroun, Tunisia, Algeria and South Africa.
Egypt’s Muhammad El-Hadary was selected in goal. Cote D’Ivoire’s Serge Aurier and Kwadoh Asamoah of Ghana were selected for the wingback positions while Kalidou Koulibally of Senegal and Mehdi Benatia of Morocco were the two centre backs.
The two Nigerian players are in midfield: Obi Mikel, right side of the midfield and Musa on the left while Cote D’Ivoire’s Yaya Toure is at the centre of midfield.
Upfront, Asamoah Gyan of Ghana leads the attack, Sadio Mane of Senegal is on the right side of attack while Pierre Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon will operate from the left.