FOUR top tacticians Laurent Blanc, Phillip Cocu, Ernesto Valverde and Jose Peseiro have been shortlisted by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for the vacant Super Eagles managerial job.
Former international, Victor Ikpeba, disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday.
Recall that following the sack of German Gernot Rohr last December, the NFF settled for former Porto boss Peseiro for the plum job, and was expected to study the Super Eagles players during the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon before his assumption of duty after the tournament, an arrangement which later became a mirage.
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Ikpeba, 1996 African Footballer of the Year, in an interview with Channels TV stated that the list of seven candidates was trimmed to four by the technical committee, which has since forwarded its recommendations to the executive committee of the nation’s soccer ruling body.
“We have about six, seven foreign managers who applied for the job, the names are all out but some of them were not mentioned.
“We looked at the profiles and we decided three, four of the foreign managers we take it to the executive committee of the NFF board to decide.
“Ernesto Valverde, Laurent Blanc, Phillip Cocu and José Peseiro applied for the Super Eagles job and based on their profile they were shortlisted,” the Atlanta ’96 Olympic gold medallist told Channels TV.
ALSO READ:Â NFF appoints Jose Peseiro as Super Eagles head coach
President of the NFF, Amaju Pinnick, had earlier in the month revealed that
Portuguese Peseiro remains a suitable candidate if he still desire to coach Nigeria.
“It’s not impossible, but would he [Peseiro] want to come? If he would want to come then it would be a major plus for us because it shows that he loves this country,” Pinnick had told Arise TV in an interview