FORMER Chelsea and Newcastle United manager Rudd Gullit has emerged as the favourite to take over as the next Super Eagles manager after Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) chairman Amuja Pinnick said his board is poised to name a foreign manager soon. Last week, the NFF decided to part ways with the coach Stephen Keshi after a string of poor results and asked former manager Shaibu Amodu, to take charge of the team temporarily until a full time replacement is found. Amodu's task will be to try and win the remaining two African Nations Cup qualifiers away to Congo and at home to South Africa and qualify the Eagles for Morocco 2015. Over the weekend, Mr Pinnick disclosed that the NFF has signed a deal with a company that has agreed to bankroll the salary of a new foreign coach for one year. He added that the deal would enable the NFF to take Nigerian football and the Super Eagles to greater heights. Mr Pinnick said: "It's not that we don't believe in Nigerian coaches, we believe so much in them but right now we need a foreign coach to actually train and rediscover our potentials. We concluded a deal to sign a foreign coach and the company has agreed to pay the foreign coach for one full year." Over recent weeks, it has been rumoured that the NFF has initiated moves to sound out Gullit as the country’s new coach. Gullit, 52, last coached Russian club Terek Grozny in 2011 and has recently been working as a TV pundit for Super Sport and the BBC. He has coached English Premier League sides Chelsea and Newcastle United as well as Dutch side Feyenoord and Los Angeles Galaxy in the US. Gullit led Chelsea to win the FA Cup in 1997 and is best remembered for his comments about wanting to play sexy football. One source close to the NFF said: “Nigerian contacts in Europe are first to sound out Gullit whether he will be open to handle the Super Eagles and if he would be available. It will be only after this contact that other considerations like the duration of the contract and the personal terms of Gullit would be tabled.” According to Mr Pinnick, the reason for the choice of a foreign coach was for the country to redeem its pride of place in the footballing world. He added that the approach of his board is long, short and medium terms and will involve creating a database of the best Nigerians players. Citing the case of Obafemi Martins, Mr Pinnick said he is currently the hottest commodity in Nigerian football and the NFF will not allow such players to be overlooked. He added that the federation will also get all clubs to have the Under-13 teams and made to participate in a junior league to help discover young talents. - See more at: http://www.nigerianwatch.com/news/5568-former-chelsea-boss-rudd-gullit-is-favourite-to-become-next-super-eagles-coach#sthash.isI3IHKh.dpuf
0 comments :
Post a Comment