Newly elected NFF president Amaju Pinnick has
over time shown he is not a big fan of Stephen
Keshi and this could well decide the future of the
coach.
*Pinnick
Keshi does not have a contract after his initial deal
ran out after the World Cup. He will take charge of
Nigeria’s two AFCON qualifiers against Sudan this
month after which the new NFF executive
committee led by Pinnick will decide on his future.
However, the early signals are not promising for
Keshi. It is feared that he will not keep his job
much longer at least going by what Pinnick thinks
of him.Pinnick questioned Keshi’s competence
during the World Cup in Brazil.
“I like Keshi as a person, but the Eagles run-up to
the World Cup and their first game (vs Iran) has
proved to me that Keshi has reached his limit,” the
new NFF chief told Saturday Vanguard Sports in an
interview after the last FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
That was before he became NFF boss.
“He is a national hero. I celebrate him for all he
has achieved with the team in such a short time,
but it appears he can’t move the Eagles forward
unless he improves on his abilities.”
Pinnick also blamed Keshi’s coaching staff for not
adopting the scientific approach and so Nigeria’s
failure to go past the knockout stage of the last
World Cup.
“We failed to go further in Brazil because our
coaches did not adopt the scientific approach to
winning matches. Football has gone beyond
having a coaching crew on the bench,” he said.
“The trend now is to have the technical back-room
staff, peopled by expert coaches, who win matches
from the bench.”