Eagles Job Bigger Than Siasia, Keshi —Akpoborie

Former Nigerian international, Jonathan Akpoborie says the coaching job of the Super  Eagles is too big for both Samson Siasia and Stephen Keshi to handle.

Akpoborie, who spent the greater  part of  his playing career in Germany, said   though his teammates and friends in the Eagles in the 90s have good credentials to  get the job, the senior national team are just too big for an indigenous coach to  handle.

Akpoborie, who started his professional career at Julius Berger, before moving to  USA  does not want to be seen as downgrading indigenous coaches, “but the truth is  that a Nigerian coach will find it difficult to make  a headway with the Eagles,” he  said.

“When you talk about qualification for the Super Eagles’ job, both Keshi and Siasia  are qualified, but sentiments apart, none of them is capable of handling the star  studded Nigerian team considering the pressure which they will face on the job,” he  said.  Akpoborie had spells with FC Carl Zeiss Jena and Stuttgart Kickers, where he  scored 37 goals in one season as well as Waldhof Mannheim, before joining top-flight  Hansa Rostock in 1995.

He noted that each time a Nigerian is employed to lead the Eagles, the coach always  fumbled, leaving the team worse than he met them.

He stated that the job of rebuilding the Eagles after their poor outing at the last  South Africa 2010 World Cup is huge, hence the need to hire an experienced foreign  coach who will command the respect of the players.

Meanwhile, Siasia and Keshi will on 4 November face the newly constituted technical  committee of  the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, for an interview on the plum  job, while the successful candidate is expected to takeover from the caretaker  coach, Austin Eguavoen on 1 December, 2010 on a two-year contract.

Media Officer of the NFF, Robinson Okosun, said the duo are the only two coaches  that applied for the job when the board of NFF called for applications from coaches  interested in the job.

—Wale Joseph