“I learned a lot under Eguavoen” – Former Super Eagles defender eyes coaching return to Nigeria National team

Ex-Norwich and Nigeria defender, Joseph Yobo, boasts the Super Eagles will miss out on something great if he doesn’t make a return to coaching duties with the national team, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 2013 AFCON winner worked as an assistant manager with the Super Eagles between 2020 and 2022, but he, alongside the remainder of the coaching staff were relieved of their duties after Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Speaking in an interview with Ifeanyi Udeze on Brila, the former Everton man mentioned he’d like to return to coaching the Nigerian football team, citing his experience under Gernot Rohr and Augustine Eguavoen to be enough.

“My life doesn’t depend on coaching, but if I don’t go back to coaching, I believe Nigeria missed something. Everyone who knows me knows my passion for the game, I put my heart into it. I learnt a lot from Gernot Rohr, but mostly under Eguavoen. They didn’t allow me to follow through so they could see what I had learned and how I could impact the players. I haven’t shut the door on coaching, but it’s not my top priority. They need to change the way they treat our local coaches. That was the only reason I didn’t want to join while I was still playing, even though I had the opportunity to see how it works,” the 44-year-old said in quotes revealed by Brila.

The Super Eagles are currently without an official head coach since contract talks with Bruno Labbadia got called off. Augustine Eguavoen is in charge of the team for the time being.