Benin Republic head coach Gernot Rohr believes the Nigeria Football Federation is right in its choice of Augustine Eguavoen as the interim manager of the Super Eagles for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Soccernet.ng reports.
Eguavoen was not the first-choice handler for the Super Eagles ahead of games against Benin and Rwanda this September.
However, the NFF settled for the former international after German coach Bruno Labbadia opted out of a deal to become the permanent Super Eagles in August.
Eguavoen is not a popular choice for the job after he failed to guide Nigeria beyond the first knockout rounds of the 2021 AFCON and lost the ticket to the 2022 FIFA World Cup to eternal rivals Ghana.
A former NFF Technical Director James Peter has publicly tagged Eguavoen, who is in his fourth stint in charge of the national team, a colossal failure.
However, Rohr is convinced that Eguavoen is well-versed in the workings of the Nigerian national team, more than what a foreign coach could have mastered in only two weeks.
Rohr, who guided Nigeria to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and a third-place finish at the 2019 AFCON, insists Eguavoen would have learnt his lessons from his low moments with the Super Eagles.
“I think Eguavoen knows them (the Super Eagles) better than a new coach,” Rohr told NationSports.
“He surely must have learned from the two eliminations (for Qatar 2022 and AFCON 2021) and, perhaps, his team could be more dangerous to deal with.
Eguavoen will look to lead the Super Eagles to avenge a 2-1 defeat suffered at the hands of Rohr’s Benin in June when the two teams meet again in Uyo on Saturday.
A coach who couldn’t perform above average when he coached second or first division club in Nigeria. Gernot Rohr is just laughing at the Nigerian side who frustrated him (Egwuaveon included).
Rohr said the truth.
Only problem or mistake is that Daniel Amokachi should have been part of this technical coaching team to assist Eguavon and the super eagles succeed.