Nigeria may yet change coaches before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations. The Nigerian Football Federation has held talks with three European coaches, the president of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) revealed. And the NFF has already made its choice which could even take the Super Eagles to Cameroon.
Nigeria has already found a replacement for Gernot Rohr. And the new Super Eagles manager could even lead the national team at the African Cup of Nations. "We have spoken to three coaches and next week the Federation will announce the name of the new manager. Every top coach wants to coach Nigeria, but we are focusing on discipline. We have looked at the backgrounds of the coaches and the technical and executive committees of the Federation have chosen from the three," the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick revealed during an interactive session with sports journalists on Tuesday in Lagos.
Names are being bandied about to succeed Rohr. Among them are Portuguese Jose Peseiro and Serbian Mladen Krstajic. The latter, however, has joined the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Eguavoen to remain technical director
Nigeria want stability at the helm of the Super Eagles. "Our last coach stayed for up to five years, which shows that we are a stable country. We don't want to go back and forth. We want everything to be in an almost perfect situation," Pinnick said.
After the sacking of Gernot Rohr, national technical director Augustine Eguavoen was appointed to take over as interim coach. And the NFF has no doubts about his abilities as a coach but maintains that he will remain as the head of the National Technical Directorate. "We know that Eguavoen can do the job expertly, but we also know that he will be more useful in controlling the technical department."
The former Nigeria player's situation could change, however, if he leads the team to the CAN and wins the trophy. "However, if we can't get the coaches to start work immediately, we will give them the means to take the team to Cameroon. And if Eguavoen wins the Cup of Nations, we may have to rethink. In that case, the foreign coach will now become the technical director, while Eguavoen will occupy the position of technical advisor," the NFF president concluded.
