Sports
Race For Eagles Job: Who Wears Siasia’s Shoes?
Speculations over who becomes the new coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria will be settled today as Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) popularly called Glass House is set to announce Samson Siasia’s replacement.
The NFF sacked Siasia as the head coach of the Super Eagles last Friday in the light of his inability to qualify Nigeria for the forthcoming African Cup of Nations billed to be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in January 2012.
NFF resolved to appoint a new manager for the Eagles after extensive meeting held by the apex football body last Friday.
Soccer pundits and sports analysts in the country were awash with names of possible qualified persons to take over the job of managing the Eagles.
Some of the candidates prominently speculated include the former Togo and Mali Senior teams manager, Stephen Keshi, who promised soccer loving Nigerians that he will show expertise if given the nod. He pledged to give the nation desired results.
The former Super Eagles captain has been favoured after he lost the job to Siasia last year.
Sunday Oliseh is another person whose pedigree is also high for the job, which places him ahead of other contestants. He is seen as the best option for the new generation of Nigerian Coaches. Apparently, he has declared his willingness to become the next manager of Super Eagles.
Oliseh worked in Europe as sports director and with Vervictois between 2006 and 2009 before he acquired his UEFA coaching licence. Daniel Amokachi popularly called the “bull” during the days of his soccer exploits has also indicated interest for the job.
He has worked as a coach in Nigerian clubs particularly Nasarawa United and Enyimba FC as well as assistant coach on two occasions with Super Eagles. Besides, Amokachi handled the Under-23 national team.
Isaac Nwankwo
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.