Pinnick has confirmed that his NFF approach Mourinho for the Eagles’ job, he also assured that the team will get a substantive coach soon
By Kehinde Okeowo
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has confirmed the rumour making the rounds that Portuguese coach, Jose Mourinho, was considered as a replacement for Rohr.
The NFF boss made this known while having a media parley with sports journalists in Lagos on Wednesday, 22nd December.
According to Pinnick, NFF has discussed the possibility of taking over as the gaffer of the Nigerian national team with some European managers.
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He also assured Nigerians that the vacant position will be filled in a matter of weeks, while also confirming that NFF and the sports ministry approached Jose Mourinho to see if he is available for the Eagles job.
He said, “We have spoken to three top coaches. Peseiro, whose name has been going around, is one of them and I can tell you he is a top coach.
“We also talked to Mladen (Krstajic). But after talking to him, he got a job with a top club in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
“They are coaches who the players cannot be bigger than. I believe we are doing everything we can and that’s why we interface with the ministry on every level.
“Of course Mourinho, I am not going to tell you we didn’t talk to Mourinho because we did and the (sports) minister also talked to Mourinho and there is nothing wrong with it,” Pinnick said.
Former Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr was sacked earlier this month by NFF after a run of poor results during World Cup qualifiers, however, in a bid to avoid a vacuum, Austin Eguavoen was appointed on an interim basis.