The Minister of Sports, Senator John Enoh, has assured Nigerians that the senior men’s national team, the Super Eagles, would have a new coach in the next one or two weeks.
Finidi George has handled the team on an interim basis while the Nigeria Football Federation shops for a substantial replacement for Jose Peseiro, whose contract ended at the end of February.
“Unfortunately, the senior national team doesn’t have a coach. We played two friendlies and had just Finidi George oversee those two matches.
“The first responsibility of getting a coach lies with the NFF and I have been in touch with the NFF because I think Nigerians didn’t expect that after AFCON and after the contract with coach Peseiro came to an end and wasn’t renewed, that it will take as long and not have a coach yet.
“But NFF is conscious and mindful that our next qualifiers in June, what I can assure is that in the next one or two weeks at the most, the senior national team will have a new coach,” Enoh told Channels TV’s Sports Tonight on Thursday.
The Eagles will be hoping to bounce back from disappointing draws with Lesotho and Zimbabwe in the World Cup qualifiers against South Africa in June.
The minister insisted that the country could not afford to miss out on another World Cup after the 2022 debacle.
“I think we have not had a tremendous start. It’s a shaky one, and therefore, there is a milage to cover given that we didn’t go for the last World Cup. We cannot afford not to go for the next and therefore everything needs to be done.
“Coming after AFCON and coming after we have had a tremendous show somewhat, I think everybody expects that we should be able to consolidate on that and take it from there,” Enoh said.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
