THE leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will commence a review of the coaches who applied for the vacant positions of Super Eagles and the Golden Eaglets today.
The current Technical Director of the NFF-Austin Eguavoen, confirmed the review on Wednesday, March 12, during a sports radio program monitored by The ICIR.
The ICIR had reported that after Jose Peseiro’s departure as the Super Eagles head coach on Friday, March 1, the position of the country’s senior men’s football team had been left vacant.
Read Also:
- NFF may need N120m to terminate Peseiro’s contract before expiration
- Super Falcons assured to get unpaid bonuses from NFF
The vacuum created propelled the NFF to call for applications to select and employ a new coach who would be saddled with the responsibilities of guiding the team for the 2025 Africa Cup Nations qualifiers in Morocco and the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
The application began Friday, March 8 and ended yesterday, Tuesday, March 12.
Eguavoen, who spoke about the applicants, said: “I can’t tell you that honestly from the bottom of my heart. I can’t lie about it. You know there is a mail and website which applications go in there. Yesterday (Tuesday, March 12) was the deadline. So we will call the admin department now to bring all the applications to our department this morning (Wednesday, March 13).”
He hinted that the eventual coach of the Super Eagles would be mandated to give more chances for the country’s home-based players in the national team.
“I am a product of this league (NPL), then the league was stronger and more interesting, so to now shy from getting players from the league is wrong.
“That is one of the things we will tell the new coach that is coming on board. Our president, Ibrahim Gasau, has been hammering at that with the entire board and the technical committee. We will emphasise that whosoever will come on board as the head of the Super Eagles has to align, too,” he added.
Ahead of the friendly matches against Ghana and Mali scheduled for March 22 and 26, respectively, Eguaveon confirmed that the Super Eagles assistant coach, Findi George, will be in the dugout.
“Well, it is always normal when a vacancy occurs and the second assistant takes over. As we are concerned, Findi was second in command after Peseiro, and now that the vacuum is there and no coach on the ground, the onus is on Findi to do those games until we reach an agreement with whoever is going to be the new coach,” he said.
We need a coach our big players will respect- Agent
In an interview with The ICIR, Jolly Ogu, the football agent who played a crucial role in Coach Jose Peseiro’s journey to Nigeria, harped on hiring a coach who can command respect in the team.
“We need a coach that our big players will respect, and over the years, we have seen the more respected ones. Another factor is that the coach will be able to adapt to countries he comes to manage,” he said.