TheCable

Tamuno Danagogo, Nigeria’s sports minister, has instructed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to get coaches in the class of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola if Stephen Keshi declines the offer made to him.

Keshi has until Thursday to get back to the federation on his N5m-a-month-Super Eagles-job, but Danagogo has warned the federation not to employ a coach of lesser pedigree to Keshi.

“What I have urged the NFF to do is to make sure that should Keshi not be given the job, a coach with a lesser pedigree than Keshi is employed. I have said we should encourage our local coaches,” he said.

“Many have argued that presently Keshi is the best we have for now while others are of the view that he has done his best.

“What I am saying is this, if Keshi declined the job; let’s look for another competent hand from the home front. But if we must get a foreign coach, then we must get the best hands not just any foreign coach.”

He then explained the meaning of “not just any foreign coach”.

“And when we say the best hands, we should be looking at coaches in the class of the Jose Mourinho’s of this world, Pep Guardiola… Those are the kind of coaches we should be looking at.

“But if we say Keshi is the best hand locally, I am not saying we should give him the job, but what we can do is help our local hands get better by sending them to refresher courses to make them better.”