Sports
Hiddink, Mancini Not Interested In Eagles Job
Guus Hiddink and Roberto Mancini, two of the top candidates whose names have been bandied around for the Super Eagles job, are set to snub the country.
UK newspaper, The Guardian reports that Hiddink is preparing to make a return to Chelsea as Technical Director, while his place in Russia is favoured to go to the former Inter Milan coach, who has been out of a job since leaving the Italian champions in May 2008.
In any case, Hiddink’s current stratospheric $8-million annual salary would lead to a huge outcry in Nigeria, unless he is prepared to take a monumental pay-cut to lead a fourth team from a fourth continent to the World Cup.
Berti Vogts, Nigeria’s last foreign coach, was paid $50 000, less than a tenth of the Dutchman’s current monthly wages of around $667 000.
That was still enough to cause national outrage, even though the tab was picked up by a private telecommunications firm rather than with tax payers’ money.
Hiddink has a contract as Russia’s head coach until the end of June 2010, but sources say the Dutchman will almost certainly quit and take a job at Chelsea.
On Saturday, Hiddink told Russia’s Sovietsky Sport newspaper that his future will be sorted soon. “I think my future will be decided relatively quickly,” he said.
The Dutchman expects a formal decision to be made as early as next month but no later than January.
A source close to him did not even mention the Nigeria job in those plans: “He would go back and would be in position [to assist] if something is going not that well.
The Chelsea players like him. He’s already been at the club. There is a proverb in Russian that you can step twice into the same water. It is something he is capable of.”
Ancelotti said yesterday that he would be happy to work with Hiddink. “Guus Hiddink is my friend,” he said before today’s game at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“If he has free time, he can come to Chelsea and we can train together. It’s not a problem.” Jokingly, he added: “Maybe I could take a little holiday.”
There is no question that Hiddink would be welcomed back at Stamford Bridge as he remains on good terms with owner Roman Abramovich, who finances his astronomical wages in Russia.
The 63-year-old had a successful spell as Chelsea’s temporary manager last season, stepping in after the departure of Luiz Felipe Scolari and winning the FA Cup.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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