AFCON
Who is Austin Eguavoen, the latest Nigerian manager on the saddle?
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
Austin Eguavoen has been handed a second chance to guide the Super Eagles to the Africa Cup of Nations. If he does well, he will likely be the one to handle the team in the play-off for a place at the Qatar 2022 World Cup and possibly win a long-term contract.
He was a former hard-tackling Super Eagles’ fullback and had assisted Christian Chukwu in the qualifying series for the 2006 World Cup before taking over from his boss.
Though relatively quiet, he has a way of getting to the record books. He was the first Nigerian to handle a European club when as a coach/player he led Selima Wonderers to a second place in the league of Malta.
As a player, he was the only Russia-based among the 704 footballers at the France ’98 World Cup. A Russian journalist told Kunle Solaja at the France ’98 that his major assignment was to give ‘full coverage’ for Eguavoen. He however played just one match, the last group game against Paraguay.
As a national team player, he was in action for 11 years since his debut as a substitute for Waidi Akani in a 4 July 1987 Africa Cup of Nations tie against Sierra Leone in Lagos.
He played for Torpedo Moscow in Russia, Belgian sides of AA Ghent and FC Kortik. He was in the Nigerian squad at the USA ’94 and also at the France ’98.
As a youth coach, Eguavoen he led the Golden Eaglets to the 2003 edition of the World Youth Championship where he handed Mikel Obi his first international appearance at youth level.
It was also under Eguavoen that Mikel Obi had the debut in the Super Eagles during a match with Libya on 17 August 2005.
When he took over from Chukwu as manager of the Super Eagles in 2005, though he was a defender as a player, Eguavoen appeared to be offensive-inclined.
He had some good results as Super Eagles scored a staggering 10 goals in two matches. Unfortunately, Nigeria still narrowly slipped in the qualifying series for the 2006 World Cup.
He is the only coach to have led the Super Eagles to beat Algeria at home when his team beat the North Africans 5-2 in Oran on 4 September 2005.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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