Gernot Rohr: Why I Am In The Coaching Job

The Franco-German gaffer has revealed that it was only a natural evolution to play the game and proceed into coaching as he was born into a family of footballers and coaches.

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has confessed that his brothers and father influenced his decision to take up a career in football.

The last of six children born to a German coach, Rohr started playing football at a very young age with his siblings and dreamed of following his father’s footsteps in the coaching side of the game.

He kicked off his senior playing career at Bayern Munich, but he became a club icon at Bordeaux, winning three Ligue 1 titles in 12 years.

He retired at Les Girondins in 1989 and joined the coaching staff the following year. He also managed Nice and Nantes before taking up his first international coaching job with Gabon in 2010.

Coaching spells at Niger Republic and Burkina Faso followed before he was hired to take charge of the Super Eagles in 2016.

Currently in talks to extend his coaching contract with Nigeria beyond the summer, Rohr revealed that his family had a significant impact on how his life has shaped up to be.

“I was born into a football family. My father was a coach, my brothers were players, so it was an obligation for me to grow up in this same job,” Rohr told the Naijasuperfans.com Podcast.

“It was a natural evolution for me, and I use to accompany my father to his training sessions, who was also a teacher. So he used to teach in the morning and coach in the afternoon.

“So it was a natural decision for me to go into football because all the time I followed my brothers and my father. Then I could sit on the bench even as a small boy. So for me, it was a natural thing to go into football.”