A new Nigeria coach to replace German Berti Vogts may emerge Thursday (28 Feb) as the board of the country’s football FA was due to meet to consider a shortlist of candidates for the job. Ahead of the meeting, however, it is sure that the new coach will be a Nigerian, considering that the four shortlisted candidates are all indigenous coaches. They are former national team skipper Stephen Keshi, former national coach Shuaibu Amodu, former national team captain Sunday Oliseh and the current Under-23 national team handler, Samson Siasia. But a source close to the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) told panapress the announcement of the new coach might be delayed for the FA to get the necessary approvals from the authorities. ”I won’t be surprised if the announcement does not come today,” the source said. Vogts, 61, resigned his US$50,000-a-month job to avoid being sacked in the aftermath of Nigeria’s poor outing at the just-concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana. Nigeria barely reached the quarter-finals of the competition, triggering widespread disenchantment among football fans in the soccer-loving country, many of whom blamed the German for the poor outing.
