NFF Makes U-Turn, Appoints Amuneke New Super Eagles Coach

NFF Makes U-Turn, Appoints Amuneke New Super Eagles Coach

* Eguavoen remains interim manager

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has fortified the Super Eagles technical crew with the inclusion of a former Nigerian international and FIFA Under-17 World Cup winning coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, as the chief coach of the team.

Coach Augustine Eguavoen retained his position as the interim technical adviser of the team in the new reconstituted technical crew of the Eagles announced by the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF on Monday.

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 2022 play-off round against the Black Stars of Ghana next month.

This automatically foreclosed Jose Peseiro’s chance of taking charge of the Nigerian national team as the Head Coach.

The 61-year-old Portuguese was named to the role after the NFF executive committee met via video conference on December 29, 2021, to take over after the AFCON 2021.

“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.

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.”

Amuneke, who scored both goals that won Nigeria its second AFCON title against Zambia at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations final in Tunis, 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.