Super Eagles job: Amuneke favoured

The last week has been a very busy period for the Nigeria Football Federation. Apart from having two teams (male and female) participating in the African Games in Ghana, the football house has been busy with sorting out the very important issue of getting new coaches for the U17 and the senior national team, the Super Eagles.

As expected, there has been a deluge of applicants for both jobs. As of Tuesday’s deadline for the submission of applications, no fewer than 12 coaches had applied. Although the NFF had yet to come up with the names of applicants, it was public knowledge that most of those angling for the Super Eagles job were former Nigerian internationals.

As if in response to the emotional general appeal by Nigerians for a homebred coach to take over from where Portuguese tactician, Jose Peseiro left, only one foreign coach has applied. Former Cameroon’s coach, Antonio Conceicao is among the applicants who beat NFF’s deadline for the submission of applications.

Others are Daniel Amokachi and Sylvanus Okpala(both assisted late Stephen Keshi when Nigeria won her last AFCON title in 2013), one-time Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh, disgraced former Super Eagles handler Salisu Yusuf, former USA U19 men’s coach Michael Nsien and Ndubuisi Egbo, Also in the running for the Super Eagles top job is Finidi George who was Peseiro’s assistant and Henry Makinwa.

With the clamour for an indigenous coach to handle the Super Eagles, it is very unlikely that any foreign applicant has a chance. But with the NFF in charge, nothing is impossible.

AFCON

As ‘poor’ as Peseiro was perceived to be, the Portuguese piloted the Super Eagles to their first AFCON final in 11 years. Unfortunately, it was in the final that Ivory Coast exposed Peseiro’s technical inadequacies, a fact that has surreptitiously fueled calls for an indigenous coach. The Super Eagles played so badly that they made Ivory Coast – a team they beat 1-0 in the group stages, look like an ensemble from another planet.

The Ivorians had a 62-38 share of possession and had 18 efforts on goal compared with the Nigerians’ five. Eight of the Ivory Coast efforts were on target whereas Kessie’s own goal was the only effort on target from Nigeria. The Eagles played what former Nigeria international Sunday Oliseh, who incidentally is applying to replace Peseiro, described as ‘parking the bus’. Ironically, Peseiro set a threshold for whoever succeeds him.

With the compilation of the applications now over, we gathered that the consensus among NFF bigwigs is that the next Super Eagles coach will be an indigenous manager. It is also said that the NFF are happy with the level of enthusiasm among Nigerian coaches who they consider top-notch. Our source added that “All the applicants are very good, with very good credentials as each of them can hold his own anywhere”.

He continued, “They are happy with the quality of applicants, but among all of them, Amunike is highly favoured by the majority of the NFF hierarchy,” our source informed. He said that the former Head Coach of Tanzania and U17 World Cup winning coach “is poles ahead of the rest in the rating of most members of the board.”

Emmanuel Amuneke belongs to the golden generation of Nigerian football. After a glowing career in Africa and Europe, the former Nigeria international has carved a niche for himself as a coach. In 2013 he assisted Manu Garba to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup in UAE. Two years later, Amuneke successfully defended the trophy for Nigeria as he led the likes of Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, and Kelechi Nwakali, among others to retain the trophy in Chile.

“His close relationship with some of the Super Eagles players, like star forward Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, Kelechi Nwakali, among others is also an added advantage,” our usually dependable source hinted.

“He is like a father figure to some of them,” he said, adding, “they do not only see him as a mentor, they also look up to him as a role model, a hero.”

Amuneke assisted Austin Eguavoen during the Super Eagles Qatar 2022 qualifying double header against The Black Stars of Ghana which Ghana prevailed through an away goal advantage... Could that have counted against the former Tanzania gaffer? “Not at all,” our source quipped. “He was not in charge,” he insisted, pointing out that “the buck did not stop on his table.”

Our source said the NFF was expected to name the new Super Eagles head coach in April, “hopefully, before the two international friendly games against Ghana and Mali in Morocco but added that Finidi George may likely be in charge in the two matches if ‘the appointment is not made before then’.