The coach of Nigerian football team to the 2016 Rio Olympics, Samson Siasia has appointed Chelsea midfielder, John Mikel Obi as captain of the Under-23 team.

Coach Siasia made the announcement at a press conference on Saturday.

“The choice of Mikel Obi was automatic as he is the captain of the Super Eagles and also the captain of Team Nigeria to the Games,” Siasia said at the conference.

He added, “It’s just natural for me to pick Mikel as our captain. Aside the fact that he is the captain of the Super Eagles.

“So after meeting with both of them and explaining my position, I am pleased to say Azubuike who has been our captain understood and was happy to hand over the captain’s band to Mikel.

“It is a thing of joy for my team to produce the first footballer to captain Team Nigeria to the Olympics. This, to me, is more than gratifying.”

It was gathered that the Dream Team VI players unanimously accepted Mikel Obi as their captain and expressed delight at the role he has been playing since he joined the team.

On his part, Mikel expressed joy at being made the captain of the Dream Team, describing it as an honor that must yield result in Brazil.

It would be recall that Yeni Malatyaspor midfielder, Okechukwu Azubuike had captained the team all through their qualifiers.