Yusuf, Le Guen, 18 others apply for Eagles’ job
The Super Eagles caretaker coach Salisu Yusuf and front runner Paul Le Guen are among the 20 coaches that have applied to lead the Super Eagles in the 2018 World Cup qualifying tournament, officials have disclosed.
NFF technical committee chairman Chris Green disclosed that as many as 20 coaches have applied for the Eagles post vacated by Sunday Oliseh in February.
Le Guen, a former Cameroon coach was previously reported not to have applied for the position, but officials have now confirmed he has done so.
Serbian Goran ‘Plavi’ Stevanovic, who posted a superb run with Ghana between 2011 and 2012, is also in the running.
Former Kano Pillars Slovenian coach Ivo Sajh has also thrown his hat in the ring. He led Pillars to a historic CAF Champions League semi-final in 2009.
Deadline for submission of applications is Wednesday with NFF announcing a short list of candidates on Friday after a technical committee meeting.
Meanwhile AfricanFootball.com specially understands that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is now banking on a sum of $1.5 million from a sponsor to cover the salaries of a new foreign coach for the country.
The cash is expected this week and if it comes through, Nigeria could appoint a new coach as early as next week, AfricanFootball.com further learnt.
The Federation is broke and the sports ministry has made it abundantly clear the government will not help out with paying for an expatriate coach, with sport minister, Solomon Dalung telling the world last week that the country would not hire a foreign coach to keep him unpaid.
The NFF is known to have sounded out a bank and an oil company to pay for the new coach, who will lead Nigeria through a difficult 2018 World Cup qualifying group that has Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia.
It would be recalled that a major telephone company bankrolled the salaries of German coach Berti Vogts between 2007 and 2008, while a presidential task force was responsible for the salaries of the country’s last foreign coach, Lars Lagerback, for the 2010 World Cup.
The NFF on Sunday announced that it will on Friday release a short-list of candidates for the vacant position of the Super Eagles’ Head Coach, with the Federation’s Technical and Development Committee setting tomorrow as deadline for interested candidates to apply for the position.
The Super Eagles are away to Zambia’s Chipolopolo on October 3 in the first match of the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier and will then host the Fennecs of Algeria on November 7, and again host Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions on August 28, 2017 and visit the Lions five days later, before hosting Zambia a month after and then rounding off the series by visiting Algeria on November 7, 2017.