The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) appointed 63 year old German,
Gernot Rohr as the new Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles on
Tuesday. The appointment puts to a close the protracted attempt by the
football house to bring in a foreign coach after Paul Le Guen rejected
in the job in July.
Now with an appointment in place, the attention has shifted to the
upcoming World Cup qualifiers which starts in October against the
Chipolopolo of Zambia.
Gernot Rohr is not a stranger to coaching teams in Africa. He has
previously managed Burkina Faso, Niger Republic and Gabon. He was also
one time manager of Tunisian club side Etiole dul Sahel.
As a result, he would not have to adapt to conditions that are
prevalent in Africa in terms of having to deal with the difficult
traveling around the continent and the unforgiving playing surface in
some African countries.
He remarked that he is a German, and he is a winner in his first
comments when his appointment was confirmed. He went further to state
that Nigeria not only has the potential to qualify for the World Cup,
but they can get to the latter stages of the tournament.
Yet, every new person coming into a new job would always be upbeat
about the chances of the team.
At the moment, the Super Eagles are in their lowest ebb with their
failure to qualify for the African Cup of Nations in 2015 and 2017. As
a result, the team has fallen to 71st in the FIFA rankings.
The Super Eagles have never been short of talents, but issues of on
field indiscipline and the inability of past coaches to mould
individual talents into a formidible team.
In terms of emerging talents, that could transform the fortunes of the
Super Eagles, Nigeria have not had it so good for a long time. With
the likes of Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Leon Balogun, Moses Simon
and even the uncapped Sadiq Umar, who is currently setting the Rio
Olympics football events alight.
In terms of attacking players, there is alot of players coming through
at the moment and others that have been around for a number of years
in Ahmed Musa and Victor Moses.
However defensively and in midfield, the team cannot fully boast of
talents coming through like others in the attacking areas. But such
shortcomings could be mitigated against by using the sum of the teams
part to achieve a greater cohesion defensively.
Though Gernot Rohr has worked in Africa before, he would not have
worked with the kind of quality players that would be at his disposal
when he finally resumes his job fully. The pool of talents available
to him would be bigger than anything or anywhere he has been involved
in in the past.
At his age, experience is not an issue. He would bring his wealth of
experience to the team as a old warhorse. His experience of having
previously worked on the continent would be especially valuable as he
doesn't have to adapt fully to the demands of the job here.
The German would be Nigeria's first foreign coach in six years after
the ill fated spell of Lars Largaback who was in charge for the 2010
World Cup. Previously Clemens Westerhof (1989-1994) and Philippe
Troussier (1997) were the last foreign coaches to qualify the Super
Eagles for the 1994 World Cup in the United States and the 1998 World
Cup in France. Although, Bora Milutinovic was the coach that took
Nigeria to the tournament in France as Troussier was sacked after he
qualified the team for the tournament with a game to spare for the
bizarre reason that those in the football house were not comfortable
with his 3-5-2 system.
It was Amodu Shaibu and Stephen Keshi that qualified the team for the
2002, 2010 and 2014 World Cup respectively.
Gernot Rohr would be attempting to be the third foreign coach to
qualify Nigeria for its sixth World Cup. And this qualification should
be the toughest yet with Algeria, Cameroun and Zambia the opponents
that Nigeria would have to overcome in order to qualify for the World
Cup in Russia in two years time.
Amaju Pinnick has staked his reputation with the appointment of a
foreign coach. He has been vocal about this since Sunday Oliseh
resigned from the position. Now that he has gotten what he wants, its
left for him to create the enabling environment for the German to
perform his duties. Something he failed to do when Stephen Keshi and
Sunday Oliseh were in charge. Still date, they are still being owed
salaries and allowances the NFF never paid.
Gernot Rohr is fully aware of what it takes to work in Africa,
although Nigeria is not Burkina Faso, Gabon or Niger Rep. as the
pressure of these jobs are different.
And the organisation is better in those country than Nigeria. It is
his ability to cope that will determine whether his two year stint
will be a success.
Above, the issue of sentimentalism should be a thing of the past,
invitation should be based purely on merits. Something our local
coaches aren't particularly known for.
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