Former Super Eagles skipper, Joseph Yobo has disclosed how African football icon Stephen Keshi built him up to become Nigeria’s captain adding that he was more a playing captain than a team captain, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.

Thanks to an impressive outing with Nigeria Flying Eagles at the 1999 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Yobo caught the attention of Super Eagles selectors.

And on 24 March 2001, he made his senior national team bow against Zambia in an Africa Cup of Nations clash that ended 1-1 in Chingola.

In his third outing against Namibia at Windhoek’s Independence Stadium, he captained the country for the first time ever as Yakubu Ayegbeni and Ishola Shuaibu scored in the 2-0 win.

Since he has been a fulcrum in Eagles’ backline before going ahead to become Nigeria’s first centurion against France in 2014.

During an Instagram live chat with Ubi Ofem, special adviser to Cross River state governor on tourism, the ex-Everton star explained how the late Keshi made that happen when quizzed on what it means wearing the Nigeria skipper’s armband.

“It felt great being Nigeria captain but to be honest, that was not what I was looking for. Playing for the national team was the ultimate goal,” said Yobo.

“Being a captain first happened in 2001, I think that was after my third or fourth cap. Nigeria had already qualified for the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations. Some of the senior players were rested and we had a game to play against Namibia away from home.

“When we got to Namibia, Stephen Keshi – may his soul rest in peace looked at me and said ‘Yobo come here, you’re going to be the captain of that game’, I turned around seeing [Wilson] Oruma, Pascal [Ojigwe] and other senior players. I led the team and that was the beginning of me experiencing captainship.

“Then, in AFCON 2002, I captained Nigeria in the third-place match. After we lost to Senegal in the semi-final, the coaches were upset that we could have done better, so they changed the team for the third-place game. In the presence of senior players, I was also given the captain’s band.”

“Keshi said he sees himself in me and that I was the younger Keshi,” he continued.

“We were very close and we spoke a lot. Basically, he was building me to become a captain.

“Let me say that I was captain of 40 percent of games I played for Nigeria because sometimes when [Kanu] Nwankwo was not playing and ‘Jay-Jay’ [Okocha] was not fit, I was the captain. So I was always the playing captain but not the team’s captain.

“I was already used to the captain’s armband until Kanu retired in 2010, then, I became the team captain and also the playing captain.”

Before drawing the curtain on his international career, he led Nigeria to a third Afcon triumph in South Africa under Keshi as chief coach.

He is currently Super Eagles’ assistant coach after the Nigeria Football Federation named him as a replacement for axed Imama Amapakabo in February.