Time for indegenous coaches to handle Super Eagles is now!
By Harrison Jalla
This is an era of exclusivity for the Nigerian indigenous coaches to take over the position of the head coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Having loitered in the wilderness of foreign coaches for more than 8 years, with nothing to show for it, with more than 5 unproductive years with Gernot Rohr and almost 2 years of Jose Paseiro with Coach Augustine Eguavoen making a brief stint in-between.
It is time to engage our indigenous coaches with the same offer, terms and conditions given to Gernot Rohr and Jose Paseiro . Any attempt to treat indigenous coaches differently will be resisted.
The performance of African indigenous coaches in the last 3 editions of AFCON is a clear indicator that African coaches are better than their European counterparts in the management of the Continents national teams.
Nigeria must take a cue from Morocco, Senegal, and Ivory Coast who won the three last editions of the AFCON with indigenous coaches.
The last two foreign coaches Gernot Rohr and Jose Paseiro left no legacy other than destroying the Super Eagles traditional pattern of free flowing football, initiating attacks from the wings. None of these foreign coaches could attain late Coach Stephen Keshi ’s 2013 AFCON record.
The NFF should invest in the development of our indigenous coaches from the annual technical grants from FIFA and CAF for the benefit of our football.
The nucleus of the team that won the 2013 AFCON are home based players, Nigeria would do better with our indigenous coaches . We have a legion of ex-internationals qualified to handle the Super Eagles , Emmanuel Amuneke, Sunday Oliseh, Finidi George, Andrew Uwe, Emeka Ezeugo, Samson Siasia (upon his return), Sam Okpodu, Clement Temile ,etc.
Nigeria was once at 5th position in FIFA rankings but clueless football administrators have pulled us to where we are today by entrenching and recycling visionless leaders. The time to break that monopoly is now and will certainly happen in a matter of weeks.
It’s either we continue to play football in Nigeria, or we close shop. The best hands cannot continue to be on the sidelines for charlatans.
