If Super Eagles Interim Coach, Austin Eguavoen, eventually leads Nigeria to the forthcoming Cameroon 2022 African Cup of Nations, the competition will serve as a job interview for him, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said.
The NFF is planning to hire a substantive coach for the Super Eagles before the 2022 AFCON kicks off on January 9, but the NFF has said it would settle for Eguavoen if getting their choice coach before the competition fails.
NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, said in Lagos last week that Eguavoen’s position in the Eagles is guaranteed, adding, however, that he could change from being technical director to the substantive coach for the national team.
The NFF boss dispelled insinuations that the Federation does not value Eguavoen, saying the former Super Eagles captain has a vital role to play in the system.
“We know that Eguavoen can do the job expertly, but we also know that he will be more useful controlling the technical department.
“However, if we cannot get the coaches to start work immediately, we will empower him to take the team to Cameroon. And if Eguavoen wins the Nations Cup, we might have a rethink. In that case, the foreign coach will now become the technical director, while Eguavoen takes the position of technical adviser.”
Eguavoen led Nigeria to the 2006 African Nations Cup hosted by Egypt and was assistant to Berti Vogts at the Ghana 2008 edition of the competition.
