Sports Minister pencils Amunike, Yobo as assistants as he searches for Eagles coach
Insinuations that Dare wanted Amunike and Yobo as part of the new setup are also baffling to some stakeholders
By
Olukayode Thomas
The Minister of Youths and Sports Development Sunday Dare has been speaking to stakeholders in Nigeria sports in his search for a coach for the Super Eagles since the team failed to qualify for the Qatar FIFA 2022 World Cup.
Sources close to the Sports Ministry told 234sportsng.com that Dare has pencilled down Emmanuel Amunike and Joseph Yobo as assistants to the coach he intends to hire.
Dare’s first choice for the Eagles is Sunday Oliseh.
Though; technically sound and has the strong character to lead the Eagles but there are lots of bad blood between Oliseh and the present board of NFF, and even players.
Stakeholders believed that Dare ought to have found a way of resolving the differences between the NFF and Oliseh before attempting to impose him on the board.
Apart from Oliseh, Dare is also shopping for two coaches in the NPFL who will also work with the new coach.
Meanwhile, members of the NFF board are said to have met with officials of the Sports Ministry and insisted on hiring a foreign coach.
What the Super Eagles need is a good coach, local or foreign, especially with Cote d’ Ivoire 2023 Afcon around the corner but the NFF too has shown a lack of good judgment when it comes to employing coaches for the Super Eagles.
Gernot Rohr was just an average coach while the Portuguese coach they wanted as a replacement before it was aborted Jose Peseiro had more failures in his resume than success, Austin Eguavoen was always a disaster waiting to happen, and when it eventually happened many were not shocked.
Insinuations that Dare wanted Amunike and Yobo as part of the new setup are also baffling to some stakeholders,
“What has Amunike and Yobo done to coach our national teams? The two guys can be good coaches in the future but as it is today they have a lot to learn and the national team that plays irregularly is not the place to learn. Can’t we borrow a leave from Ghana? Their coaches are learning from top clubs like Borrusia Dortmund and Aston Villa. Why can’t Nigeria approach Barcelona or Porto and ask them to take Amunike as an understudy coach for three years, why can’t we approach West Ham and ask them to train Yobo?. Yaya Toure a bigger player than Amunike and Yobo is doing the same at Tottenham presently, his brother Kolo who is also bigger than the duo is doing the same thing at Leicester City.’’
Our source, a former player who does not want his name in print also blames the media for not securitizing our coaches very well, “As a coach, what has Amunike done to coach Eagles? Winning U-17? That’s a phantom achievement, we all know how we win U-17 in Nigeria. Qualifying Tanzania for a weak Afcon and losing all the matches you played at the tournament is not a criterion to coach Super Eagles job nor failures at all the clubs you have coached in Nigeria’’.
He concluded by saying that Dare and the NFF are just looking for a quick fix to use football to divert the attention of Nigerians from more important issues, “ if they are serious, let them fix our league, if our league is fixed 80 per cent of the players that played against Ghana will not make our team”.
