The former Afcon kings are presently without a handler following the disbandment of the Augustine Eguaveon-led coaching crew
1980 Africa Cup of Nations winner Segun Odegbami has frowned at the hiring of a foreign coach for the Super Eagles following the failure of the previous crew.
The Nigeria Football Federation sacked the Super Eagles’ coaching crew led by Augustine Eguavoen after the team failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Eguavoen had taken up the temporary job following the dismissal of German gaffer Gernot Rohr in December. Former Super Eagles winger Emmanuel Amuneke was added to Eguavoen’s backroom staff, which already had ex-internationals Joseph Yobo and Alloy Agu, after the Eagles’ early elimination at the 2021 Afcon in January.
But the NFF withdrew the contract it had offered the coaches days after the Super Eagles lost on aggregate to Ghana in the final World Cup playoff.
And after a meeting with the Federal Ministry of Sports last week, the under-fire NFF President Amaju Pinnick revealed that a new head coach would be appointed for the Super Eagles in the coming days.
Odegbami is worried that the body language of the NFF points towards the hiring of yet another foreign coach for the Super Eagles, especially with the last one failing to lift a title of any kind with the team. The last time the Eagles won the Africa Cup of Nations was under home-grown Stephen Keshi in 2013.
And Odegbami is convinced that allowing NFF’s poorly-constituted technical committee to appoint an unproven European for the Super Eagles just a few months after sacking the last one could spell doom.
“Except there has been a foreign coach in waiting, given the manner the teams’ technical crews were sent packing, this is already an accident-waiting-to-happen,” the former Shooting Stars forward wrote in his column for Complete Sports.
“It is a hurried, medicine-after-death prescription.
“Definitely, another foreign coach, so soon after the 6 wasted years of Gernot Rohr that were the foundation of the present poor state of domestic as well as international football in Nigeria, is not a well-thought-out-enough reaction to the present fiasco.
“The issue of another foreign coach at this time is delicate. It will definitely get the full attention of those of us vehemently opposed to going back to that old, tested and failed route – hiring unknown, journey-man coaches without pedigree, or serious credentials, from Europe on the basis of the colour of their skin and the ‘slavery mentality’ that Whites are of superior knowledge and experience, without any evidence in our history that they achieved what Nigerians never did.”
Since the turn of the millennium in 2000, the Super Eagles have had four foreigners – Jo Bonfrère, Berti Vogts, Lars Lagerbäck, and Rohr – as head coaches, with none winning anything with the team.
Odegbami should shut up. Does he not realise that no one wants to hear him talk anymore? What did Rohr did so wrong? What has Odegbami done to develop the game anywhere in Nigeria? Apart from being a serial opposition voice to anything that does not give him benefit. The NFF are bad, but Odegbami is no better, so he should please shut up!
You got my thumb up…..Odegbami needs to shut his trap…..
Thanks my dear brother….I was just goint to tell him to gohide his face in shame and shut up forever!!!
You are the one that should shut more than just your mouth up here, shut your slave mentality up as well, the only thing that was decent and reasonable on your comment was that the ( NFF president Amaju Pinnick and the Board ) are bad but still you were not too intelligent to had given exact description on who and what they are because they are not just only bad ( they are equally evils in human forms ) soulless and highly enslaved by money individuals that some women birthed into our midst” that’s what and whom they are, instead of you to judge Femi ogdebami on what he said today or his take about foreign coaches but you decided to judged him with his past, what concerns us with his past? What did Gernot Rohr achieved for the super eagles with close to fifty five thousand of dollars monthly for over five years? How much was Stephen Keshi paid a man that won us Africa cup of Nations? Useless individuals everywhere, those that over four hundred years = four centuries of slavery of their ancestors isn’t yet enough for,
Both of you are comedians
400 years of slavery yet it’s their internet and phone that you are using to disgrace yourselves ..
The guy that said Segun Odegbami should shut up Is making valid points
Your local coaches too are not good enough …
Keshi won Nations cup ..
And so what was it the same team he took to world cup that played a very funny brand of soccer and had no response to France?
Segun Odegbami and not Femi….you don’t even know him….
NFF is bad but also some of these ex international should leave our Super Eagles alone. Some of them are big time opportunists. And part of our problem. We valued how they played for Nigeria in the past and thank and appreciate their work in the past. But they don’t know everything. And we have seen it in many ways.
Again, our local coaches easily falls into whims and caprices of nepotistic corruption because of too much pressure from different angles. But whereas things you can’t try with foreign coaches. And I don’t know Nigeria has one local coach very capable now to deal with all these issues. On issue of a foreign coach with high pedigree can NFF pay the coach and meet the coach conditions in a timely manner?
Or should NFF look for coach that have respect for Super Eagles and wants to write his name in history? These questions will be for debate
@Naf….. U don’t just shut people up if u don’t understand history and statics. Am sure people like u can’t even go for a walk out of abt 5 minutes let alone playing for 10 minutes in a standard pitch.
How on Earth can u ask a legend ( Odegbami ) to shut up? He’s seen the whole pitch and understand the game which ur name hasn’t been heard in ur Village football academy let alone local govt.
Rohr spent 6 good years without a trophy? Since Clement Westerhoff left / Jo Bonfre regime, which of the foreign coaches have achieved more than ( blessed memory ) late Stephen Keshi?
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery and then u will understand the uniqueness of u.
Senegal is a contemporary example of how great is Africa and black race.
NO to foreign coach without
You are absolutely right,how can you ask Segun Odegbami to shut up,what do you know about football?He is telling us what we should do so we can get good result and improve our game.I do support you,NO TO FOREIGN COACH,Let us make use of our local coaches and even local players. All these FOREIGN players are sometimes not playing to expectations
Sorry when the head is bad the body is dead alot of things will keep happening if we don’t change our ways, whe. We have wrong people in the run of affairs of sport, and man know man that keep going on in our lifes, we have Coaches who can holdle this teams but they need to be upgraded to that standard and at the moment we’ve players but something is still missing on the technical aspect of the team for them to read the gamein the first 15 minutes and to do the right thing, and one thing again Nigerians shoild come together and do the needful when it matters most.
Who among our local coaches has taken any of our local teams beyond the group stages of the CAF club competitions in the last 5years? What has been the performance of our local coaches outside our shores in the last two years?. How far has any of our local coaches taken the us at the under-age competitions in the last 6 years. These and more are begging for answers before I can support any local coach to handle the super eagles. I am in support of the best coach for Nigeria. No local coach has been able to reach Stephen Keshi standard.
My point here is simple ….our local coaches re not good enough …tactically dey re not sound pls foreign coach all d way ….mr segun odegbami should jus dont take us backward jus bcus he is backing his colleagues to take d eagle job
No, this time around, we can’t keep trying what doesn’t work for us, it’s obvious that a level headed foreign coach is better than most quacks parading themselves as local coaches.
1)which local coach would have coach would have achieved that feat for us in 1994 & 1996 respectively, by the way; was Green Eagles of Odegbami set in 1980 coached by local a manager?. Or has he dreamt that local coaches would have done better than Westernoff & Bonfere No in 1994 & 1996 respectively. My candid submission is that fire is already burning on our sporting activities & requiring immediate, urgent & apposite attention leaving no room for any sentiments & if you ask me I have lost absolute confidence in all Ex Eagles as a body of Nigerian football technical crew/and management though not because they are totally incompetent but because they are too sentimental & economical about truth, were it be a foreign coach that had a woeful outing like that Eguavon we would have had more aspersions & blames from their quarters but because he one of them & probably a senior or junior college they all left leprosy & started treating ring worm; the so much unpatriotic attitude that’s so injurious, detrimental & so devastating to our future hope in sport most especially football, infact, as Amaju Pinnick is leaving the office their must be proper scout for his replacement I mean a more effective person that will leverage, consolidate & improve on some great legacies he’s leaving behind such as combining effort with coaches to scout for players abroad, attracting sponsors for sporting activities and so on. Thank you.
Roah was better than egouvon he told us to world cup and WOn us bronze model the previous nations cup before this awful one,our local coaches should go upgrade there CVS technical and otherwise,the ex players are to blame what dey know best is own spot sites…odegbami should not back his incompetent colleagues keshi won nations cup and got to the world and did nothing…make dem go learn we have the players but not one to develop them..
Our major problem is that, many
I wonder why segun odegbami is just stiff, inflexible,outdated and cannot read the simple handwriting on the wall.Truth is his philosophy,suggestions,advice,writings or whatever he calls them have monumentally failed
He should just shut up and let Nigeria football be
I think the real people that need sacking first and foremost. Is the NFF itself. Then we can start from there
Enough of Odegbami’s sentiments, it is the feedback of people like him that sent Rohr away. I agree Rohr did not win anything in five years but so did Cisse, and we winning and qualifying under him. We saw Nigerian coaches who has no tactical answers in the nations cup and world cup qualifiers and Odegbami wants us to keep going that way for patriotism sake, definitely not gonna happen. Enough of this crappy analysis
You all are missing the point. Odegbami is not saying the NFF should not hire a foreign coach, but if the NFFF is going to hire a foreign coach, they should hire a reputable one. A world class coach with an impressive resume. He is saying Nigeria should not hire an unproven coach. He is right about the slave mentality. Nigeria will hire a ball boy to be our coach just because he’s white. Rohr didn’t do anything in his 6 years in Nigeria. You guys are happy about a bronze medal at AFCON. That’s to show how low our standards has become. When we are rejoicing for playing goalless draw with small African teams, that’s when I knew Nigeria football is dead. That’s why Cameroun will always be my favorite African team even though I am from Nigeria. Cameroun does not fear anyone, they will beat both home and away – especially in away matches.
Aren’t we tired of these so called heroes defending the incompetence of nigeria born coaches I wrote months about this Nigerian coach who couldn’t lift nigeria. Pass the Tunisia allowed to coach nigeria against Ghana All these cohorts Christian chukwu, Sunday oliseh babangida yaro,Nwosu decried the appointment of the Portuguese coach to lead nigeria They hailed Augustine Eguavoen as the savior This guy being a technical director is a joke How can he be a technical director when he move nigeria pas a basic level. Let the NFA stop listening to archaic former coaches who have old and bastardous visions They all should shut up henceforth We don’t want or need your advice no more Christian chukwu,Nwosu, oliseh okocha odegbami etc