Nigeria’s Victor Moses retires from national team

Nigeria’s Victor Moses has announced his retirement from international football at the age of 27.

The Chelsea winger played 37 times for his country, scoring 12 times since making his debut in 2012.

He had previously represented England up to Under-21 level, while coming through the ranks at Crystal palace.

“I have experienced some of the best moments of my life wearing the Super Eagles shirt and have memories with me that will last a lifetime,” he said.

“However, I feel that now is the right time to step away in order to be able to focus fully on my club career and young family, as well as to allow the next generation the opportunity to step up and to flourish.

“Thank you for the memories and good luck to the team for the future.”

I would like to announce that after much thought I have made the decision to retire from playing international football. I have experienced some of the best moments of my life wearing the Super Eagles shirt and have memories with me that will last a lifetime. Nothing will ever compete to what it felt like to represent Nigeria on behalf of our country. However I feel that now is the right time to step away in order to be able to focus fully on club career and my young family as well as to allow the next generation of Super Eagles stars the opportunity to step up and to flourish. We are blessed as a nation to have so many exciting young players coming through and now is their time. There are so many highlights that stand out for me over the years; from making my debut, to playing in two World Cups and being a part of the team to win the African Nations Cup for first time for our nation since 1994 being just a few of them. I have already spoken to the manager by telephone and would like to say thank you to him and his staff, the NFF and all of my teammates for all of their support over the years. Most importantly I would like to say thank you to the Nigerian people for believing in me and supporting me over the years. It’s meant the world to me and my family and I will always be a proud Nigerian supporting the team. Thank you for the memories and good luck to the team for the future ??

A post shared by Victor Moses (@victormoses) on Aug 15, 2018 at 8:16am PDT

Moses won the Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria in 2013, and represented the nation at two World Cups, in 2014 and 2018.

Nigeria were knocked out at the group stage in Russia this summer, having beaten Iceland but suffered defeats by Croatia and Argentina.

Source: BBC