Westerhof joins race for Eagles job

BY JOE APU

TWENTY-two years after leading the Super Eagles of Nigeria to her first World Cup in USA’94, former technical adviser, Clemens Westerhof has indi­cated interest in returning to Nigeria to revive the team.

With talks of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF ready to hire a for­eigner to prosecute the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier after Nigeria failed to qualify for the AFCON 2017 champi­onship after her loss to Egypt.

According to impeccable NFF sourc­es the Dutchman who had never hidden his desire to make a comeback to Ni­geria had been in constant touch with egg heads of the Nigeria federation to actualise his dream.

“There’re coaches that have indicated their interest to manage the Super Ea­gles and Clemens Westerhof is one of them. We’ve been in talks with a good number of them,” our source revealed.

However, NFF President, Ama­ju Pinnick who was shocked by the sudden resignation of Sunday Oliseh just weeks to Nigeria’s back-to-back encounter against Egypt had proposed the hiring of a foreign manager stressing that the country cannot afford to toy with the World Cup qualification.

“I cannot put our World Cup hopes on a local coach. We need a world class coach who can reshape our football,” Pinnick said.

“That is why I cannot compro­mise my decision for a foreign coach. Egypt has so many profes­sionals abroad, but Cuper used only five and he still went ahead to get the desired result. That is why I am insisting on a foreigner for the Eagles.”

In a statement after the Eagles crash, the NFF said like most Ni­gerians, they were saddened by the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations final competition, following a 1-0 defeat by seven –time African champions Egypt in Alexandria on Tuesday, 29th March 2016.

“We see this failure to qualify as an unfortunate turn of events, be­cause it came despite the undoubted efforts of the Coaching crew led by Coach Samson Siasia and the play­ers led by the captain, Mikel Obi, and the efforts of the NFF leadership who not only supported the techni­cal crew but also provided necessary support regarding comfortable trav­eling arrangement and accommoda­tion for the team’s home and away matches.