Segun Odegbami, a former international footballer, has urged the Nigeria Football Federation to consider hiring a local coach to lead the Super Eagles. Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Lagos State, Odegbami emphasized the need for Nigeria to find a more capable individual to manage the national football team.
The departure of Portuguese manager Jose Peseiro was confirmed after his contract officially ended on Thursday. Peseiro, who led the Super Eagles to a commendable second-place finish at the 2023 African Cup of Nations, expressed satisfaction in coaching the West African nation on Friday.
“Unless we want to be enslaved forever, in our colonial mentality where we think that only the white can coach us to success.
“All around us, we hear about some Nigerians who are excelling in all fields of endeavours and they are leaving the country to go and help other countries.
“Football is not a rocket science, but a simple game. We have lots of Nigerians who have all the qualifications to take us to any level.
“For me, I won’t suffer from colonial mentality again and enough of foreign coaches. Now, it’s time for a Nigerian coach to handle our national team, ” Odegbami said.
He urged the erstwhile Super Eagles Coach, Peseiro, to move on out of the coaching role of the Super Eagles.
Odegbami said that Peseiro had performed averagely as coach of the Super Eagles.
“Peseiro did not resign as the story is being peddled. His contract ended and it was not renewed, end of story.
“He should bow out when the ovation is loud. If the ovation was not loud, the government wouldn’t have given him the award that nobody could have ever imagined.
“Peseiro got a reward that has never been given to any coach in the world, not because he won the AFCON, but because he came second.
“He should leave Nigeria alone to face the future. We need a coach who will take us to win something because we are tired of coaches who cannot win anything for us, ” he noted.
(NAN)
