As many as six senior players of the senior national team of Nigeria have kicked against the much talked about negative vibes around the future of the coach of the team Jose Peseiro, whose contract will expire in June.
Peseiro’s one year stay as coach hasn’t been a success story so far with just three wins in nine games under a period of one year. Heavy 0-4 loss against Portugal in a friendly game and also 0-1 loss at home to Guinea Bissau in the AFCON qualifiers increased the calls for his sacking.
His $70,000 a year deal is supposed to run for an initial period of one year with the AFCON as the determinant on if he will get an extension or not. However the postponement of the tournament which he has been tasked to win to guarantee an automatic extension has brought about a new wave of confusion.
The NFF is mulling over not handing him an extension and with idea of handing the job to an indigenous coach, the consensus decision by most of the executive committee members of the Ibrahim Musa Gusau led board.
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OGN spoke to five senior players of the team and they all backed the Portuguese coach to continue in his role as coach insisting that they are slowly coming to terms with his demands and tactics, especially with his all out attack approach, a total departure to what they played in the five years under erstwhile coach Gernot Rohr.
Three of them rejected the idea of bringing an indigenous coach to lead the team pointing out to the debacle and mess that engulfed the Austine Eguavoen led crew, which cost them a spot at the World Cup in Qatar.
In their words, no indigenous coach has stepped up to the level of handling the team with the demands of building a team before the next AFCON, a task they believe can only be handled by an experienced coach like Peseiro.
Osas Mahawi
