Finidi George has been officially selected as the coach of the Super Eagles after winning the fans favourite Emmanuel Amuneke and the host of others.
Facts about how he beats fans favourite Emmanuel Amuneke and other applicants have emerged, Kpomkwem News reports.
Monday, the Nigerian Football Federation approved the recommendations of its Technical Committee to appoint Finidi as coach ahead of over 60 other local and foreign applicants.
Some of the other coaches who applied are US U-19 coach Michael Nsien, Spain-based former Katsina United coach Henry Makinwa, Sylvanus Okpala and Daniel Amokachi. Former Cameroon coach Antonio Conceicao and Dutchman Danny Bujis also reportedly applied for the job.
A member of the NFF Technical Committee, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said some stakeholders had tried to influence their decision in favour of their candidate
However, the Technical Committee members resolved to stay firm with their decision to pick the best candidate for the position despite mounted pressures by some top stakeholders and influential individuals.
According to him, “Some of these people think they are the masters of the game, but they don’t know that some of us have been in this game for some time too. Do you know they set up a WhatsApp platform to decide and influence who will become the coach of the Super Eagles. But we snubbed them,” our source said.
“It could have been the other way round and we would still move on and support whoever the NFF picked.
“We know that some candidates that were not picked for the job would complain, that’s life for you. The important thing now is to support who is there and see how we can qualify for the World Cup. Now we have a manager, he’s going to coach the team, he has the desire to coach and he’ll definitely sit down with the federation officials to sort out his contract.”
On how they arrived at Finidi as the best choice for Eagles, our source said with just weeks to the crucial World Cup qualifiers against rivals South Africa, they needed someone who had an in-depth knowledge of the squad, and not a new coach who would come with a new philosophy alien to the players.
He added that Finidi, having served for 20 months under Peseiro, emerged the right man for the job, while his knowledge of domestic and continental football as current NPFL champions Enyimba also gave him the nod.
Our source added, “Finidi, with due respect to him, has been on ground, and he’s in tune with the dynamics of the modern game, and that for us is a big plus. He’s working with Enyimba, won a league title for them, has coached on the continent and he’s been busy coaching in recent years.
“At the national team level, he’s been with the Eagles as assistant and we know we have some tricky World Cup qualifiers ahead. A new coach might come in with tactics that the players will struggle to adapt to. We don’t need that now, he concluded.
