*Drafts Amuneke into technical crew as Head Coach

Duro Ikhazuagbe

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Monday officially put in the cooler negotiations with Portuguese Coach, Jose Peseiro, to take over the Super Eagles job from sacked Gernot Rohr.

Instead, the federation announced a reconstituted technical crew of the Super Eagles with Augustine Eguavoen retained as Interim Technical Adviser.

Eguavoen led the team to the just concluded AFCON 2021 in Cameroon where the Nigerian senior national team emerged the best team in the group stage, winning all its three matches before crashing out of the Round of 16 to Tunisia.

To reinforce the technical bench ahead of next month’s 2022 World Cup playoff against Ghana’s Black Stars, NFF also drafted former Nigeria World Cup star and former U20 Boys’ Head Coach, Emmanuel Amuneke as immediate assistant to Eguavoen.

One of the most decorated footballers to have come out of Nigeria, Amuneke scored both goals that won Nigeria the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations final match against Zambia in Tunis, scored the goal that won Nigeria and Africa’s first Olympic football gold medal in 1996 and played in the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals, scoring two goals at USA ’94.

As coach, the electrifying winger qualified Tanzania for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and led the Taifa Stars in the finals. He is a Member of both the FIFA and CAF Technical Study Groups.

“The NFF Board has approved a recommendation of the Technical and Development Committee retaining Augustine Eguavoen as Technical Director/Technical Adviser (interim) while Emmanuel Amuneke becomes the Chief Coach of the Super Eagles. Salisu Yusuf will be the 2nd Assistant Coach/Chief Coach of the CHAN team and Joseph Yobo will be 3rd Assistant while Aloysius Agu remains the Goalkeepers’ Trainer,” NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi announced.

The reconstitution comes after the Super Eagles’ outing at the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon, and ahead of the potentially –explosive FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 play-off round against the Black Stars of Ghana next month.

Sanusi added: “We acknowledge and appreciate the interest that Mr Jose Peseiro has shown in Nigeria Football during our very cordial discussions and have absolutely no doubt about his capacity. We believe that perhaps in the future, there could be an opportunity to work with him. However, in view of the positive performance of the Super Eagles at the just-concluded Africa Cup of Nations which has given hope to Nigerians and boosted our confidence in the present coaching crew to qualify us for the World Cup in Qatar, we have decided to accept the recommendation of the Technical and Development Committee to retain the Eguavoen-led coaching crew and strengthen it with the addition of Emmanuel Amuneke.”

NEW SUPER EAGLES COACHING CREW

Augustine Eguavoen – Technical Director/Technical Adviser (interim)

Emmanuel Amuneke – Chief Coach/1st Assistant

Salisu Yusuf – 2nd Assistant/Chief Coach, CHAN

Joseph Yobo – 3rd Assistant

Aloysius Agu – Goalkeepers’ Trainer