The much talked about Ogenyi Onazi losing the role of vice captain of the Super Eagles has been addressed by coach of the team Gernot Rohr in yesterday’s press conference.
Some reports in Nigeria alleged that the Trabzonspor midfielder has been stripped of the vice captain band after a row with captain John Obi Mikel few weeks to the start of the World Cup in Russia.
Nigeria have so far played one game with Onazi left on the bench for the entire duration of the game as Nigeria slumped to a 0-2 loss, his role as an unused substitute didn’t come as a surprise to many as he has failed to convince in the friendly game they played as part of their build up to the World Cup.
Oghenekaro Etebo who took his spot in the starting line up in the game against Croatia was widely rated as the best player for the Nigeria and even made the list of best eleven players after the first round of games at the World Cup.
“What I have already said to some of your colleagues (journalist) is that it’s not true. What’s happening is that we have one captain and several vice captains. There’s one condition to be vice captain. The first condition to be vice captain is to play, if you’re on the bench, the captain is coming out like it happened in our last game and Onazi is not in the game, he can’t be vice captain”, Rohr said.
” We have several vice captains. Onazi was not on the pitch. So I cannot say Onazi is the vice captain when he is on the bench. If Ahmed is on the bench, Onazi is on the pitch but Balogun is on the pitch he is the vice captain. We have one captain and committee of players who can be vice captain”, he concluded.
Osas Mahawi
