Friday May 08, 2020. 16:00
Legendary Nigerian winger Segun Odegbami has slammed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), who are reportedly set to renew Gernot Rohr’s contract.
The 66-year-old Franco-German coach has been in charge of the Super Eagles since 2016 and he guided them to 2018 FIFA World Cup finals which were hosted by Russia.
Odegbami, who scored 22 goals in 47 matches for Nigeria between 1976, and 1981, is against foreign tacticians coaching the national team.
“I don’t know about the plot to send him packing, I have been an advocate of the end of foreign coaches in Nigerian football and I stand by that,” said Odegbami on All Nigeria Soccer.
“It is very insensitive of people at this time in our history considering where we are now with the coronavirus opening our eyes to the new realities of the world for us to continue to go back to something that has failed us.”
Odegbami disclosed that English-based scout of Nigerian descent, Tunde Adelakun was the one doing most of the job assigned to Rohr.
Adelakun has been seen attending English Premier League matches monitoring players of Nigerian descent with a view to a call-up to the national team.
“Gernot Rohr didn’t succeed, he took all that money, didn’t spend his time in this country. A black young Nigerian man, Tunde Adelakun was the one doing all the job,” he continued.
“Combing the whole of Europe to look for players and all Gernot Rohr was doing was spending a few days to assemble players and play matches.
“Besides that, his scoreline is not anything that Nigerians have not done before so we must put an end to this slavery and colonial mentality,” he explained.
The former Shooting Stars star, who helped Nigeria clinch the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title, believes Rohr should be replaced by a local coach.
“Nigerians at this point have to look inwards, everything around us shows that these people out there don’t love us so they can’t love our country more than us,” he added.
“We have Nigerians who can do the job, they have always done the job and they can still do the job. Gernot Rohr, we have no business discussing with him, his contract expires in June, he should just go quietly.”
Rohr also guided the Super Eagles to a third-place finish at the 2019 AFCON finals.
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