The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is back in the rancorous round of shopping for a suitable manager for the Super Eagles, following the exit of Coach Jose Peseiro.
The Nigeria Football Federation is back in the rancorous round of shopping for a suitable manager for the Super Eagles, following the exit of Coach Jose Peseiro.
The now-retired gaffer was following in the footsteps of his compatriots, Mourad Fahmy, who won the championship in 1957 and Mohammed El Gohary, who led the Pharaohs to victory in 1998 in Burkina Faso. Eight of the 24 competing countries at this Africa Cup of Nations had a European manager at the start of the tournament — that figure does not include Ghana’s Chris Hughton, an English-born former Republic of Ireland international with Ghanaian heritage. At the tournament’s 2017 edition, 12 of the 16 teams were coached by people from outside Africa — 10 from Europe and one each from Argentina and Israel.
Nigeria spent an average of $600,000 yearly on its former head coach, Jose Peseiro, who was earning $70,000 monthly when he first joined the national team before it was negotiated downwards to $50,000.In some other countries, head coaches earn far more than Peseiro’s monthly take home, just as some others pay their managers less. Countries spend all these huge sums because they want the best for their national teams.
Such elite football-playing nations as England, Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal had at different times employed foreigners to manage their national teams when they felt they had no capable indigene to do the job. With many African players moving to Europe for career progression and learning firsthand how teams are organised, the continent has seen a rise in well-grounded coaches, who were former footballers in big European teams. These players also take advantage of the training programmes organised by the European football governing body, UEFA, to learn team management.
Apart from the late Stephen Keshi, who led Nigeria to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations title and a second-round finish at the Brazil 2014 World Cup and Samson Siasia, a winner of two Olympic medals with the U-23 team in 2008 and 2016 , the country has not fared too well with its indigenous coaches. Former Green Eagles Captain, Segun Odegbami, described Peseiro’s two-year stay in Nigeria as disastrous despite the Portuguese feat of winning the Africa Cup of Nations silver medal with the Super Eagles.
Apparently in agreement, Super Eagles former midfielder, Waidi Akanni, told The Guardian that he was among those who opposed Peseiro’s appointment in the first instance because he didn’t see anything the Portuguese was bringing to the Nigerian team. On the eve of the Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, told a gathering of sports journalists that the federation was inclined to appoint a Nigerian to the position, adding, however, that most of the coaches being touted for the job have not shown that they are capable of doing the job.
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