IKENWA NNABUOGOR wonders why the Nigeria Football Federation would spend so much to hire a foreign coach when ‘Cerezo’ Austin Eguavoen is clearly on the “throne” to achieve a lot at least judging by the brutal way he dealt with Egypt…
Super Eagles are flying again at least judging from their superb showing in the 2021 African Cup of Nations group opener against perennial champions Egypt and the orchestrator was no other than the interim coach, Augustine Eguavoen.
Fans were smiling again watching their dear Eagles devour the mighty Egypt, leaving no doubts who was the better side and ultimately finishing off the Pharaohs.
Eguavoen was named as the next man in charge in the interim when Gernot Rohr was shown the door last December after a long drawn negotiation on 68 year old Franco-German’s Eagles’ future, while the NFF appointed Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro to take over from Eguavoen after the AFCON.
Peseiro’s resume is far from exciting save for the Egyptian League title he won with Al Ahly and nothing to boast at national team level.
The only “positive” thing about the new coach was that he has been linked by the NFF to the ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho.
At national team level, Peseiro was a disaster, leaving 59th placed Venezuela in the current FIFA Rankings worse off than he met them, losing six games in 10 outings for the South Americans with incredibly poor winning ratio of 10.00 percent.
The other national team experience Peseiro got was with the Saudi Arabia with an equally poor winning percentage of 38.71 achieved playing 31 games in total and winning 12, drawing 12 and ending up on the losing side seven times.
This national team record of Peseiro is nowhere near Eguavoen’s who led Super Eagles to bronze medal finish at 2006 AFCON in Egypt.
Why would NFF appoint a foreign coach who Eguavoen is better than at national team level?
The game against Egypt proved Eguavoen has what it takes to succeed with the team and possibly bring back the long-expected winning days.
Who says ‘Cerezo’ cannot go all the way to win his country’s fourth title on February 6 in Yaounde?
What happens to NFF and Peseiro when he does win a fourth AFCON?
That would definitely mean public funds were wasted despite the harsh economic climate hitting hard on the country.
Will NFF cancel Peseiro’s contract, pay him off and continue with Eguavoen by committing him to a long contract?
The answers to these posers will be seen should Eguavoen return home with the AFCON title.
NFF boss Amaju Pinnick appears to have answers to these posers already when he reportedly told the local press that he could reverse roles of the two principal actors – Eguavoen taking the role of Technical Adviser, while Peseiro settles for Eguavoen’s current post of Technical Director.
It remains to be seen if the Warri-born soccer chieftain will keep his words should Eguavoen win the AFCON.
A lot had been going wrong with Rohr’s Eagles most significantly the seemingly loss of the dressing room which also negatively translated into their poor result’s.
Eguavoen appears to have fixed this which also formed a major part of his reforms in assuming reigns declaring “every player will be carried along”
The immediate result of this was the impressive display and win over Egypt on Tuesday.
The remaining days will reveal how well Eguavoen has taken charge of this team and it remains to be seen if NFF will change their stance after they hinted earlier and confirm Eguavoen as the man in charge of Eagles.
After all, who needs Peseiro judging by the way things are playing out in Cameroon so far?
