One good turn: Beleaguered Ahmed Musa needs Nigeria more than ever

The Leicester forward has endured a rough season at club level, but could Gernot Rohr and the Super Eagles offer him refuge?

 Ahmed Musa is the second most expensive player in Leicester City’s history. He has played professional football in four different countries, in climactic extremes spanning sub-Saharan African and Arctic Russia. He has earned over half a century of international caps for Nigeria, played and scored at the World Cup, and has captained the Super Eagles.

He is well off, very much so especially by the standard of a country in which, by UN estimates, more than half of the citizenry lives below the poverty line. Mansa Musa he is not, but through that prism, he is wealthy, affluent even. The notion that he can have problems is hard to comprehend for most.

And yet, Ahmed Musa is 24 years old. He has played roughly 22 hours of football since moving to the East Midlands on July 8 2016, has seen the manager who signed off on his acquisition sacked, and is in bad odour with the present boss. He has been questioned by police pertaining to possible domestic violence, been exonerated, is in the middle of divorce proceedings, and is in the process of taking on a new spouse.

He has been passed over as captain of the national team, in spite of being vice-captain, in the absence of Mikel John Obi.

Simply put, Musa is going through the toughest phase of his career.

He is not exempt from responsibility, of course. No attempt should be made to view this as some great persecution, even though the latter situation with the captaincy is akin to the temptation of a weary Christ in the wilderness. He may be young, but he is no infant.

While he is not responsible for Leicester City’s decision to sign a player who so obviously was a troublesome tactical fit, he is culpable for a lack of endeavour, and a pace of learning that has reportedly left the staff at the King Power Stadium frustrated.