Austin Eguavoen Reveals He Turned Down Mali Job To Become Nigeria’s Technical Director

The ex-Nigeria international was recently appointed the boss of the NFF’s technical department, and he has revealed his desire to contribute his quota to the development of football in the country

Former Super Eagles captain and coach Augustine Eguavoen has hailed his appointment as the Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF.

The 55-year-old tactician also revealed that he had only recently been named as the coach of Mali’s Club Malien de Bamako.

Still, he turned down the offer when the NFF approached him because of his desire to show that an ex-international can push Nigerian football to a higher level.

Eguavoen is a member of the trailblazing Super Eagles set of 1994 that won the AFCON title the same year and qualified for the country’s first FIFA World Cup in the USA. 

The former Gent defender started his coaching career in Malta with Sliema Wanderers and has since managed clubs in South Africa and Nigeria.

The former Enyimba International gaffer also coached the Super Eagles between 2005 and 2007, but his elevation into the director position will see him oversee all technical matters concerning Nigerian football.

“I just came back from Mali, where I was about to resume as coach of one of the clubs in the country,” Eguavoen told the Guardian.

“I had already been announced as the coach of the club on their radio station when I was in the country. But I had to turn down the appointment because I need to serve my country.

“The Malians were not happy, but I still have a cordial relationship with them.

“I didn’t want to turn down the technical director’s job because it would look like the NFF is giving an ex-international a job, and he is turning it down.

“I want to work in developing Nigerian football at all levels. It is a call to service that I could not turn down.”

Eguavoen earned 49 caps for the Nigerian national team across ten years, featuring mostly as a right full-back.