Keshi or Siasia to coach Nigeria
By Peter Okwoche



Nigeria's Super Eagles will learn their new coach on 8 November
Nigeria are set to name either Samson Siasia or Stephen Keshi as the Super Eagles' new coach early next month.

The candidates will be interviewed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on 4 November, with the successful coach being revealed four days later.

"Whoever is selected will start work on 1 December," NFF board member Deji Tinubu told BBC Sport.

Caretaker Austin Eguavoen will lead the team for next month's friendly in Iran before taking over the Olympic side.

And Tinubu clarified why the list of nominations for the job is so short.

"We've spent so much money on foreign coaches before," he explained.

"Everyone is saying they want Siasia or Keshi, so let's try to see the ones who can do it from within ourselves."

Nigeria were led by Swedish coach Lars Lagerback at this year's World Cup, who failed to take the team out of the group stages.

This was despite earning nearly a million dollars for just over five months' work.

Siasia had already been in talks with the NFF over succeeding Lagerback before the body chose to advertise for the position.

Having won the 2005 African Youth Championship, the former Lokeren and Nantes striker took his team to the Fifa U20 World Cup final where they were undone by Lionel Messi's Argentina.

A former assistant coach for the senior national team, Siasia also took Nigeria to the 2008 Olympic Games final where Argentina (and Messi) once again proved too strong.

Keshi, meanwhile, worked wonders when qualifying Togo for its first and only World Cup in 2006 but was dismissed before the tournament.

The 48-year-old, who has also been a Super Eagles assistant coach, led Mali at this year's Nations Cup but failed to steer the West Africans out of the group stages.

Both nominees are former international team-mates who knew success with Nigeria's national team.

Keshi captained Siasia at Nigeria's maiden World Cup finals in 1994, a year when the pair also won the 1994 Nations Cup.