Foreign coach for Eagles!

Garba Lawal

Ex-international Garba Lawal has advised the Nigeria Football Federation to shelve the idea of engaging a foreign coach for the Super Eagles. He said it would be too expensive considering the state of the naira against the foreign currencies.

After analysing the scorecards of some past Eagles’ coaches, both foreign and indigenous, Lawal concluded that the expatriate coaches had not performed significantly better than their Nigerian counterparts.

Lawal told our correspondent that coaches were rated by their results and noted that success of a coach depends on various factors including luck and availability of good players.

He said, “I played with the foreign coaches and I also played with the Nigerian coaches. For me it was a mixture. The foreigners are Johannes Bonfrere, Bora Milutinovic and Thijs Libregts. The Nigerians are Shaibu Amodu, Adegboye Onigbinde, Christian Chukwu and Augustine Eguaveon.

“I can’t say which ones were better but the most important thing is success. If you enjoy playing with a coach, then it becomes fantastic. No player will like a coach that leaves him on the bench, no matter how good the coach is. My opinion on whether we should get a foreign coach or an indigenous coach doesn’t matter because it is the Glass House that will make that decision. It’s all about money. Whether black or white he is not going to work for free.

“We should forget about those coaches. Once you talk about a foreign coach, people will ask whether we have money to pay him. People will count between naira and dollars, especially now when one dollar is 200 naira plus. So, it is not advisable to go for a foreign coach now, because you have to put money on the ground before he comes.”

The former Eagles midfielder said the national team has been coached by both Nigerians and foreigners, with some succeeding and others failing. He noted that some indigenous coaches have achieved what their foreign counterparts could not achieve for Nigeria.

“Berti Vogts came here, he didn’t record any success. Even Libregts only stayed for a few months and he left for Holland without success. It was only Bonfrere that stayed long. Bonfrere was with us in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics and we won gold,” he said.

“Bonfrere came back in 2000 and we won silver at the Africa Nations Cup. Amodu Shaibu coached us and we came third in Mali. Augustine Eguaveon came third in Egypt. Christian Chukwu came third in Tunis 2004. Stephen Keshi also won the AFCON as a coach.”

Lawal also lamented the long wait for a new coach for the Eagles since Keshi’s contract ran out at the end of the World Cup in Brazil in July last.