Former Nigeria international Ifeanyi Ekwueme has urged the Nigeria Football Federation to hand over the reins of Nigeria’s cadet teams to Coach Emmanuel Amuneke, Completesports.com reports.
Nigeria has struggled at the U17 and U20 levels since Amuneke led the country to win the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, unearthing the likes of Kelechi Nwakali, Samuel Chukwueze and Victor Osimhen.
Since then, the Golden Eaglets failed to qualify for both the continental and global showpiece in 2017, and crashed out in the second round at the latest edition in Brazil last year.
The Flying Eagles on the other hand, haven’t fared any better, failing to qualify for the junior World Cup in 2017 and being eliminated in the Round of 16 in 2019.
Ekwueme, who is currently the Sporting Director ofi Heartland FC, says the NFF needs to retrace their steps, look back at when the cadet teams were most successful and appoint Amuneke who was the person behind the success to restore the teams back to where they belong.
Also Read – NFF: National Teams’ Coaches Appointments, Except Eagles, in February
“Nigeria is a giant in African and world football and has a huge pedigree when it comes to junior teams, but lately we’ve really been disappointing and I lay all the blame at the feet of the NFF, especially in their appointment of coaches,” Ekwueme said.
“Since Samson Siasia left, Amuneke has established himself as arguably the best coach in Nigeria and I think he should be given the job of coaching both the U17 and U20 teams. We all saw how he took Tanzania to their first ever Afcon from nearly an impossible position.
“One of the things that made him succeed is his discipline which he has maintained since his playing days and that is what is most needed when coaching young players because we have enough talents already in Nigeria.”
Amuneke who was the African Footballer of the year in 1997 is currently free after leaving his position as coach of the Tanzanian national team.
18 Comments
Good talk from Ifeanyi Ekweme. Thumbs up man.
How about asking them to give him the Falcons, U-23 and Eagles too ?
Hahahaha just like Phil neville of England which turned out to be a successful experiment but in this case I don’t see a possibility!
@Larry enviness is your bane. Let’s who the cap fit wear it. Bad belly
@Larry enviness is your bane. Let’s who the cap fit wear it. Bad belly is your feature
Larry was just making a joke let’s all laugh no fighting at least Phil of man u self successfully guided the English ladies into the last 4 at the women’s world cup.
Nice on Ekweme even Victor Osihmen confirmed this no nonsense attitude. Amuneke u20 and Manu Garba u17 for a last chance will not be a bad idea most especially after learning from his recent wc failure but I still think he has unearthed some talents in the names of Akinkumi, Ugbani and Co that in future we will hear their names.
manu garuba wetin? Oga we need our ex internagionals in our verious national teams, i dont know you people cant lean from other country
Ekwueme you observed well, please let the NFF wast no time to bring coach Emuneke to U17 team,the results will surprise you
Let me not see that man called manu garba again in any of our national team,cause am really getting sick of that man.pls let the nff go ahead and appoint an igbo man amuneke as the national u17 coach. When amuneke was the assistant of manu garba he helped garba to win the world cup,after which he amuneke also won his own first world cup as a manager. So i don’t really see garba as coach cause he is a useless coach.
Age grade tournament is not all about winning trophy rather its about unearthing talents if you look at that team assembled by Garba you’ll realize there are talents lets not forget hes the man who discovered Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho and a host of them. We can not always win all the time even though i am not disputing the fact that we can try a new hand.
This is why people see Igbos as the most ethnic set of people. Why do you mean by ‘appoint an Igbo man?” Criticize Manu Garba based on his performance and not his ethnicity.
Did Amuneke also help Manu to win U20 AFCON too…..??? LMAO
Since Manu was Yemi Tella’s assistant in 2007 when we won the U17 world cup, can we also say “………he helped Tella to win the world cup, after which he also won his own first world cup as a manager. Hence he must be a damn good coach cause he wins trophies by completely dominating his opponent with a sweet brand of attacking football….”
Illiteracy and tribal bigotry are indeed worse diseases than coronavirus. Lolz
See guys, this is another testimony to how entitled these people are. Very tribalistic.
Could you guys stop being tribalistic for a second? What gives the assumption that only Igbos are good at football in this country? This is what I have been saying about how entitled you guys are.
IGBO KWENU! 🙂 🙂 🙂
“…NFF needs to retrace their steps, look back at when the cadet teams were most successful and appoint Amuneke who was the person behind the success to restore the teams back to where they belong…….I think he should be given the job of coaching both the U17 and U20 teams…..”
I dont want to believe an ex-international who played at the top level made these unintelligent statements.
All of a sudden, Amuneke is now the single factor behind the successes of our cadet teams and must be given 2 teams to manage at the same time….LMAO. Let them ‘Kuku’ hand the NFF and all our 9 national teams to him na.
These are the same ex-internationals some people are opining should be given jobs without proper scrutiny and interviews. I weep for Nigerian football if that happens.
We need him to come back . We missed our winning ways