Ahmed Musa is a forward of the Saudi football club Al-Nasr and the Nigeria national team. Moreover, he became the youngest captain of this team - for the first time he had a chance to put on a captain's armband a few days before his 23rd birthday. Russian fans are also familiar with Ahmed, as he played for several seasons at CSKA Moscow.
Early biography and performances in Nigeria
Ahmed Musa was born in 1992 in Jos - the average largest Nigerian city located in the center of this African country.
He made his first steps in football in his small homeland. In 2008, Ahmed Musa began to play for the club of Josin Medical University "JUTH". With JUTH, he played eighteen games, scoring four times.
In 2009, the young footballer was loaned to FC Kano Pillars. During the 2009/2010 season, he played 25 games for this club. At the same time, he managed to hit the rivals' goal 18 times, and this result became the record for the number of goals scored per season in the Nigerian championship. However, this record did not last too long - already the next year it was surpassed by forward Jude Aneke (he was able to chalk up 20 goals over the same period).
Club career from 2010 to the present day
In the summer of 2010, Ahmed Musa left for Europe. He became a striker for the BBB-Venlo team, playing in the Eridivisi, the top Dutch division. However, for the first time he was able to defend the colors of the club only after October 14, 2010, that is, after his eighteenth birthday (before he simply could not be released on the field, as this was contrary to FIFA rules). More specifically, Musa's debut took place on October 30, 2010 in the match between BBB-Venlo and Groningen. And already here he proved to be very useful to his team. At the beginning of the second half, on the 50th minute, Musa was shot down in the penalty area of Groningen - as a result, a penalty was awarded. Another BBB-Venlo player, the Moroccan Ahmed Ahahaui, came out to perform it. And he coped with his task - the ball flew into Groningen's net.
On May 1, in the match against Feyenord, the talented Nigerian footballer scored a double and gave a beautiful goal pass, thanks to which his team won 3: 2. And it was a fundamentally important victory, it was it that that year allowed "BBB-Venlo" to no longer be afraid of departure from Eridivisi. In total, in the 2010/2011 season, Ahmed Musa played 23 matches for BBB-Venlo, in which he managed to score five times.
He also spent the beginning of the 2011/2012 season at VVB-Venlo. One of Musa's brightest matches at this time was the match against Ajax Amsterdam, which is traditionally considered one of the strongest clubs in Holland. Ahmed scored twice in this meeting, and his team began to lead 2-0. But the players of “VVV-Venlo” still failed to keep their gates clean. They conceded 2 return goals and the game ended in a draw.
On January 7, 2012, the functionaries of the Dutch club announced that Musa would soon leave their team and move to the camp of CSKA Moscow.
And on the official Internet resource of the "army" there was a message that the Nigerian had signed a contract with the club for five years. According to some reports, the army team had to pay 5,000,000 euros for Musa.
On February 21, the Nigerian in the shirt with the eighteenth number made his debut for the "army". Moreover, in a very important match - in the Champions League match against Real Madrid from Madrid. He played for about 65 minutes, after which coach Leonid Slutsky decided to replace him. By the way, in the end this match ended in a draw - 1: 1.
On March 3, 2012, Akhmed played for the first time in the Russian championship. CSKA's rival that day was the St. Petersburg team Zenit. Interestingly, in the middle of the second half, the Nigerian rookie managed to score a goal and make the score equal - 2: 2 (in the end, the match ended just that way).
In the first half of the 2012/2013 season, Musa became the main center forward of CSKA (this was due, in particular, to the fact that Seydou Doumbia was injured). On October 10, in the game against Kuban, he managed to score a double. All in all, in the 2012/2013 season, Musa hammered 11 goals, falling with this result to the third line of the Premier League scorers rating. And in general, during this season, the Nigerian proved that he is a high-speed footballer with excellent technique, who can competently play both in the center of the attack and on the flanks.
In the 2013/2014 season, Musa has already firmly established himself in the starting lineup of CSKA. And this season the army team were able to achieve excellent results - they took not only the “gold” of the regular championship, but also the Russian Super Cup.
On June 1, 2015, Musa signed a new four-year contract with the army club. However, a year later he moved to English Leicester. Moreover, the amount of this transfer was very impressive - 19.5 million euros.
In the 2016/2017 season with Leicester, the Nigerian played 21 regular season matches, as well as five Champions League games (and, in general, he was released as a substitute). It is also worth noting that he scored 6 goals for Leicester that season.
On January 30, 2018, Musa returned to CSKA on loan. This time he began to play in the Moscow team at number 7 (it is interesting that earlier the “seven” was assigned to the Serb Zoran Tosic). Musa scored his first goal since his return - already on March 15 in the Europa League match CSKA - Lyon. And although this match was played in France, at the Stade de Lumière stadium, CSKA was able to win 3: 2.
On April 15, Musa distinguished himself in a meeting with Ufa (and in the end it ended in a draw - 1: 1). In the 23rd round of the Russian championship, in the game against Perm "Amkar", which took place on April 18, 2018, he gave two assists (the final score here was like this - 3: 0). And in the next game, which took place on April 22, he scored as many as two goals against Krasnodar (CSKA then won 2: 1). Of course, Musa made a significant contribution to the fact that CSKA reached the second position in the championship and won silver medals. In general, during the 2017/2018 season, the Nigerian footballer played 16 matches for the army team, scoring 7 goals.
In August 2018, the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nasr paid Leicester (the club that still owned the forward rights) almost £ 15,000,000 for Musa's transfer.
In the 2018/2019 season, the Nigerian center forward as part of Al-Nasr became the champion of the regular championship of Saudi Arabia. Musa's current contract with this club is for four years.
Brilliant career in the national team
Ahmed Musa has been playing for the main national team of Nigeria since 2010. In his debut match - the rival in this case was a team from Madagascar - he replaced John Obi Mikel, and played in his position until the final whistle.
And in March 2011, Musa scored for the national team for the first time - this happened during a match with the Kenyan team.
In 2013, together with the Nigeria team, he won the Africa Cup of Nations. It is also important to note that in this tournament he scored one goal (in the semifinal match with the Mali team).
Since 2014, he has been a stable member of the Nigerian national team. And at the world championship, which took place in the same 2014 in Brazil, it was Musa who became the team's best goalscorer.
In 2015, the footballer was awarded The Nigeria Pitch Award in the Forward of the Year category. In addition, since October 11, 2015, Musa began to act as captain's duties in the national team.
In the summer of 2018, in a confrontation with a fairly strong team of Iceland (it was a match in the framework of the World Cup, which, as you know, in Russia), Musa scored two goals, which ensured a win for Nigeria. The final score of this meeting is 2: 0.
On April 2, 2019, he was named the best Nigerian footballer of 2018.
Personal information
The first wife of Ahmed Musa was named Jamila. They had two children - a son was born in 2013, and a daughter was born in 2015. In April 2017, they unexpectedly divorced due to “irreconcilable differences” that arose.
On May 23, 2017, the famous forward married again - to a girl named Juliet Edgue. Their wedding took place in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
