Nigeria
French coach Paul Le Guen has been officially appointed as the head coach of Nigeria’s national football team, the Super Eagles, on Tuesday.
His appointment was reported last week by local media awaiting official announcement.
Nigeria appoints Frenchman Le Guen as Super Eagles coach https://t.co/4v2F2An045
— africanews (@africanews) July 13, 2016
Le Guen will be assisted by Salisu Yusuf and Imama Amapakabo as well as Alloy Agu who is the goalkeeper’s trainer, a member of the Technical and Development Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation said at a press conference.
There was controversy over his assistants as veteran Nigerian coach Salisu Yusuf was tipped to lead by some members of the technical committee.
The NFF clarified that Le Guen “is to be Technical Adviser as recommended while Salisu Yusuf will be Chief Coach”.
Le Guen is to be Technical Adviser as recommended while Salisu Yusuf will be Chief Coach. 2/3
— The NFF (@thenff) July 18, 2016
The 52-year-old French coach is expected to help the country qualify to the 2018 World Cup in Russia as the team faces Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia in the qualification phase.
“We want to avoid as much as possible the perceived mistakes that made us to miss out of the AFCON 2017. To ensure that we brought the best coach that can qualify us for the World Cup, the first thing we did was to ensure we got a partner that will pay the fees of all the coaches,” President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick said.
He expressed the country’s desire to qualify for the World Cup including the efforts they are making for all the coaches to give out their best.
Le Guen has coached Cameroon leading them to the 2010 World Cup. He was later the coach of Oman in 2011 until he was sacked in November 2015 after poor performance during the World Cup 2018 qualification.
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