President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Amaju Pinnick has said that the unveiling of the Super Eagles’ 2018 World Cup kits as well as the federation’s new kits was the decision of Nike, the official clothiers of the national team to the competition.
Amaju spoke to THEWILL via telephone from Zurich, Switzerland Thursday following criticisms that the unveiling should have been done in Nigeria.
“It was Nike’s call. London was central for them. It was not only Nigeria that had their kits unveiled in London… Brazil too had theirs…” Amaju said on Thursday afternoon.
THEWILL recalls that the home and away kits were presented to the NFF at a ceremony in London on Wednesday.
The Super Eagles’ World Cup jersey was modelled by Arsenal forward Alex Iwobi and popular musician wizkid while Sophia Omidiji, who plies her trade with S.B.V Excelsior in Netherlands, modelled the Super Falcons’ kit.
Eagles skipper Mikel Obi and other teammates have reacted to the new kit in a YouTube video, which also featured the duo of Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi.
The video captured Mikel as saying “This is Nigerian. I see the players going crazy for this one.”
Ndidi reacted by saying “lovely, this is nice. The fans are going to love this one”, while Iwobi described it as perfect and different.
Former Eagles player Mutiu Adepoju added his voice to the new design by saying: “It is a yes, yes for me.”
Through his twitter handle @mutiuadepoju8, he added: “the kit reminds us of our jersey in USA 1994. Believe me, this kit could be our lucky charm in Russia.”
The Super Eagles will face Argentina, Croatia and Iceland in Group D at the World Cup.