Walter Zenga, a former Italian national team, the Azzuri goalkeeper, has indicated interest in replacing Gernot Rohr as the substantive head coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles, Completesports.com reports.
Zenga, who has equally had managerial spell at Italian Serie A side, Cagliari, is understood to have already submitted his resume, through his agent, to the Technical and Development Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF.
Alberto “Jimmy” Fontana, who is Zenga’s Intermediary, confirmed that 62-year-old Zenga, is interested in the three time African champions’ coaching role, disclosing further that his client’s last job was at Cagliari.
Zenga managed a number of clubs before Cagliari, including MLS side, New England Revolution; Brera Calcio (Italy); three Romanian clubs – National Bucuresti, Steaua Bucuresti and Dinamo Bucuresti.
Also Read: ‘Why Missing 2022 World Cup Is Good For Nigerian Football’ —Remo Stars Proprietor, Soname
Others in the long list of clubs Zenga has managed are Al Ain (UAE), Red Star Belgrade (Sebia), Gaziantepspor (Turkey), Calcio Catania (Italy), Palermo (Italy), Al-Nassr (Saudi Arabia), A-Nasr CSC (Dubai), Al Jazira Club (UAE), Sampdoria (Italy), Al-Shaab CSC (UAE), Wolverhampton Wanderers (England), Crotone (Italy) and Vanezia (Italy).
Zenga, 61, was capped 58 times by Italy. He made 328 appearances for Inter Milan before proceeding to play for Salernitana, Savona, Sambenedettese, Sampdoria, Padova, and New England Revolution.
As a player, he won a Serie A title, one UEFA Cup and Italian Super Cup with Inter Milan. He also won Serbian Super Liga and Super Cup titles as the manager of Red Star Belgrade.
Super Eagles coaching job became vacant following the sacking of Franco-German gaffer, Gernot Rohr after a six year tenure.
Augustine Eguavoen, the NFF Technical Director, was drafted in interim arrangement to lead the Eagles to the 2021 AFCON finals in Cameroon in January. But despite a 100% performance in the group stage, Super Eagles agonisingly crashed out following a 1-0 defeat to the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia in the Round of 16.
Eguavoen’s charges also failed to go past Black Stars of Ghana in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup African qualifying playoffs following a 1-1 draw in Abuja after a scoreless draw four days earlier in Kumasi.
With the painful reality of Nigeria not going to be part of the global football showpiece in Qatar, NFF has opted to employ another expatriate coach for the Super Eagles with the 2023 AFCON qualifiers being the next big assignment.
Zenga has applied to be the one to be entrusted with the future of the Super Eagles. He is vying for the Nigeria top job alongside a host of other European coaches including Portugese gaffer, Jose Peseiro; former Netherlands international, Phillip Cocu; former France international/PSG coach, Laurent Blanc and former Barcelona coach, Ernesto Valverde.
33 Comments
Black Stars dey cause problems too much
Just like how Comoros caused you Ghanaians problems. I’ll take it if it is the caliber of Ghana, Cote d’voire, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal that is triggering re organization and restructuring in our Football Association and our league and not the likes of Comoros, Mauritius and Swaziland. I read in one of the newspapers that the president of Ghana football Association is calling on Nigerians to re-elect Amaju Picnic to continue to destroy our football. Good suggestion and I understand where your oga is coming from…. The longee we keep Amaju there, the more Picnic destroys our football to the fabrics and the better for Ghana to dominate. Thank you for the suggestions. For eight years that Amaju has been at the helm, we know how much decline our football has been through. The intentions of floods of water is to destroy homes and properties in their paths… it is the owner of the property that knows what to do to stop the property from being destroyed (Agbara ojo ko so pe oun o n’ile wo, sugbon onile ni o nii gba) Please leave us alone and stay in your lane. We know what to do. We will fix our problem and our Soccer will come back to life again.
Disclaimer.though u using olu . This is brand name that tells match score always. …. From now I changed to olujjjj.
Olujjjj tell us sierra Leone score I want to put money .
Eh, eh, Stehp-it, Tehp-it.
Nigeri-eh is waiting for the next eh-peh-tunit-eh to play Gheh-neh.
We will be reh-deh for you this time!
Please guys , which website can I watch live EPL games?
N.T.A
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.footballlive.tv.streaming
If it does open for download, go to play store to download it. FOOTBALLLIVE.TV.STREAMING.
I don’t I is right to hush hurry the process. The nff should take its time since they are interested in an expatriate coach. In the meantime, Since Eguavoen is back to his position as the Technical Director of the NFF, Yusuf, Amuneke or Paul Aigbogun should continue with the team at least for the 2023 Afcon qualifiers which is just few weeks away. Then NFF can continue discussing with these foreign coach later to ascertain who amongst them is better qualified. And in whatever agreement the NFF is going to reach, clauses concerning FIFA rules of engagement must be clearly specified.
I still can’t understand why Eguavoen should continue as the technical director of the super eagles.
I think he has strong connection with Pinnick otherwise I do not really see any point because he’s not qualified to head such office,I do not see any meaningful impact he would make in our football going forward.
Proven professionals should be given a chance to head that very important position.
Engaging Eguavoen who has let the country down so many times is worrying.
@Greenturf, Bob Martins isn’t far from the truth but you would need to eschew sentiments to see the facts around Augustine Eguavoen. Facts don’t lie you know.
Besides being a successful National Team coach winning an Afcon medal in the process, Eguavoen began his coaching career in on the international scene in Malta with Sliema Wanderers, he was given the job for the 2000/2001 season, and guided the club to a 2nd-place finish, that is a superlative feat. He was appointed the caretaker coach of Nigeria in June, 2005 with his coaching staff including Samson Siasia, Daniel Amokachi and Ike Shorunmu, he went on to win a Bronze medal in 2006. He then moved to South Africa, to take over Premier Soccer League side Black Leopards in March, 2008. In the 2008/2009 season, Eguavoen was head coach at Enyimba International in Aba, however he left soon after winning the Federation Cup. Eguavoen is more than this should you need more.
Gabriel, thanks for the facts, I just Google it and what I do understand is that the NFF is right on track based on facts. Then I will also be interested to have coaching facts about any other Nigerian ex-player like Seyi Olodinjana, Emmanuel Anuneke, Dan Anokachi, Kanu, Okocha, etc. Appointment on merit should be our guiding principle.
@Gabriel,you that aren’t sentimental highlighted his achievement in Malta a league not better than that of Niger Republic,you also mentioned his coaching spells in South Africa and Enyimba but didn’t inform the many readers which I’m one of them his achievements there.
You knew he failed woefully but sentiments and the fact you want to promote him won’t let you go into details of his scorecards.
Remember also he failed with the Nigerian under17 back in 2003.
I don’t know winning a bronze medal is an achievement because a certain Rohr was berated for achieving same feat.
Eguavoen shouldn’t be anywhere near any of our national teams either as a manager or technical director he should move on,we have had enough!
I don’t think is right to hush hurry the process. The NFF should take its time since they are interested in an expatriate coach. In the meantime and since Eguavoen is back to his position as the Technical Director of the NFF, Yusuf, Amuneke or Paul Aigbogun should continue with the team at least for the 2023 Afcon qualifiers which is just few weeks away. Then NFF can continue discussing with these foreign coach later to ascertain who amongst them is better qualified. And in whatever agreement the NFF is going to reach, clauses concerning FIFA rules of engagement must be clearly specified.
*Play CSN help me with the edit button, thanks.
@Bob.
Point of correction sir, Yusuf or Finidi. Amuneke and Aigbogun were disengaged by the NFF so that rendered them unqualified. And concerning Walter Zenga, I like the fact that has a history of coaching some local clubs and that should encourage him to also look into our local league for players. We need a coach who will be interested in our local talents.
This is what you get if you don’t put your stuff in place.
What is this coach know about Africa not talk of African football?
Even Oga Rohr that knew a lot about African football, what was his achievement under his six years of his tenure? Bronze medal.
There’s time for everything in life. The current NFF members should be pay dearly for putting Nigeria image into this mess.
We patriotic Nigerians have been clamoring for the sack of Oga Rohr after the world cup in Russia but this wicked Amaju Pinnick refused to sack the German tactician not until few months ago.
Now, why Super Eagles does not have a coach yet?
Cocu is the best for the Super Eagles but NFF wants a coach they can play around like Oga Rohr and coach Eguavoen. Another thing is that, can they afford to pay Cocu?
Then, why are they wasting their time on Paseiro who has a bad record?
What kind of country is this kę. Is Nigeria a bad country? Absolutely no. What are the main problem of Nigeria? Our leaders/Citizens. I am deeply sorry for Nigeria. Some of us still want Oga Rohr back while Amaju still want to finish is tenure at all cost. Does that make any sense ba?
Let’s get Egbo, Finidi, Amunike, Ike Shorunmu, Enyeama and Ikeme on board.
We have our own that can get the job because, they have played the game before and they understand what we are expecting from Super Eagles.
These Paseiro, Walter Zenga and igba baba ishasun can’t make any difference kę.
Amaju Pinnick please resign. The day to day insult is too much for you. They are insulting you Amaju on Twitter, Instagram every day to resign but you still preferred the insult rather than to leave your position. Hmm. African leaders, I hail ooo. Well, what do I know kę. Fingers crossed. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Omo9ja please do you have a good website for EPL live streaming?
Try these two websites. “Feed4u” and “Atdhe”. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
I also do prefer Philipp Cocu to coach the SE due to our Dutch philosophy brought by Clemence Westerhoff,but his record of late at Fenerbahce,Derby County are nothing to write home about…I personally don’t like Portuguese coaches,as for Zenga he’s average. Since the NFF decided to impose 2 assistants to the would be expatriate coach instead of following the NFF constitution which states that only 1 assistant is allowed for a foreign coach then they should complete the order with another local coach or is the constitution only for sacking coaches,hypocrites also in the past for a local coach to be SE coach either they proved their capabilities in other African countries (eg.Lt.Keshi) or must have passed through the age grade levels with degrees of success and as such my preference will be Manu Garba but na Naija we dey so wishful thinking for me and you, we’ll have to watch and see how these things unfold.
@Tamaru, are you related to Kels Tamaru? We we lived together in Izzi LGA that was in the 90s. Anyways, I am also of the view that anyone interested not just in the Super Eagles job but the NFF executives must be ex-players with domestic coaching background and this should be at the senior level. My suggestion would have been for Eguavoen to be reassigned to manage the SE for now till any further development, this is hinged on the fact that he is more qualified having an in-depth local coaching experience in the country as record clearly shown. And it is even rumoured that Eguavoen also coached some clubs in America, Greece, Cyprus and South Africa.
Enoh if you are sure of Eguavoen coaching experience both at local and international levels, let’s have the facts please. Quiet sincerely and mostly as it concerns the president of the NFF, he should be someone with a large pool of experience. We must begin to start giving honours to merited persons and not just electing individuals without requisite experience in our football space. The very reason why our football is like destroyed.
@Enoch, so kindly read @ Gabriel above for answer to your question. Eguavoen actually started coaching foreign club sides before delving into the local scene where he won the Federation Cup as head coach of Enyimba International of Aba. The record is there, lol.
@Enoh & Damian, so kindly read @ Gabriel above for answer to your question. Eguavoen actually started coaching foreign club sides before delving into the local scene where he won the Federation Cup as head coach of Enyimba International of Aba. The record is there, lol.
@Gabriel, that means whether as a substantive coach of the Super Eagles or as the Nff president, Mr. Eguavoen is eminently qualified. One thing I like fans for is that they seldom argue the moment facts are presented. To me o, Mr. Eguavoen should stay at his duty post till when he takes over as the Nff President in Semptember for proper restructuring of our football from the grassroots all through the league stages to the international space where he indeed started his coaching career.
We had a below average Coach who labelled our players as AVERAGE. We had a Bonfere Jo who was asked whether he was surprised Nigeria defeated Brazil at the Olympics and said No because I believe in my players. That is what you get for appointing a good coach no a NIGERIEN certified coach.
Just pause a moment and think if Oyinbo coaches will keep average black Nigerian players in their payroll week in week out. Rohr was a FRAUD. Some people are still supporting him as some are supporting the man in Aso rock.
I’m impressed with Walter Zenga record and mien but should the NFF made up its mind to appoint a domestic coach, experience must come to the fore the reason why all the fans are now in support of Austin Eguavoen. Thank you @Gabriel for the info.
Eguavoen is qualified to be appointed as the Minister of Youth and Sports.
All those calling for the failed Egueavon to continue his ill-qualified position of coaching Nigeria team, are all enemy of Nigeria football moving forward.
Madness everywhere in Nigeria including football the same demon spirit working all-over the place
Eguavoen as a Technical Director, but what advice or blue print will he offer or present to whoever the new coach would be ?
His office is supposed to present the national team coaches with the route and system the national teams should be threading, regarding playing style and ethics, but he himself understand nothing about tactics, so what advice can he give? He hasn’t achieve nothing in coaching to qualify him for that office. If he still wants a future in the game, he should look for a way to equip himself tactically and go get a club coaching job.
Because, if we have a football federation with people who are really knowledgeable about the game today, Egu will be out of that office tomorrow.
An interesting take
So people still campaign for Eguaveon to continue as national team coach? Ndi mmadu self! Africa can not develop, no wonder white people call Africa black monkey! Because of their inability to reason why both educated and non educated. Learn from white people. If they fail in public office, they will resign honorably. But Africa man will die there.
Nigeria will renege on any contract and not pay his salary while expecting him to win the World Cup for them