Ex-international, Julius Aghahowa, has faulted the plan by the Nigeria Football Federation to hire a foreign coach for the Super Eagles, saying such a move can inhibit the country’s football growth.
The NFF announced the plan to appoint an expatriate to work with now-resigned head coach Finidi George after the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign hit turbulence.
Aghahowa, who scored 14 international goals, said the NFF might have set Finidi up for failure as they had planned for the hiring of a foreign coach.
He said the local league would be the biggest loser in the plot to employ a foreigner for the Eagles, as the new man may unlikely consider Indigenous players for the national team.
“I think it’s what they want. So they will usually go for what they want, irrespective of what people see or what people’s opinions are, but I feel we have gone past that. Right now, we should be looking inward. First of all, we don’t have money to pay foreign coaches right now. I remember how they struggled in the past,” the former Bendel Insurance striker told Brila.
“We should look inward and allow our homegrown coaches to coach the national team, but in the long term, if you look at the national team in the past few years, we don’t have the homegrown players included in the call-up. So, I feel that if we have our homegrown coaches, that should be an opportunity for the homegrown players to be invited to the national team, so we can make our league stronger,” he said.
