TheCable

With the dramatic exit of Sunday Oliseh as Super Eagles coach, Nigerian football pundits are speculating a likely replacement.

Granted, Samson Siasia, Emmanuel Amuneke and Salisu Yusuf, have been drafted to temporarily salvage the situation, the search is for a high-profile replacement.

The mandate for Samson Siasia and his crew is to lead Nigeria to the double-header against Egypt, after which they will both resume their job as Dream Team and Flying Eagles coaches respectively, and make way for the emergence of a substantive coach who could be one of these six:

SAMSON SIASIA

Many will rule him out simply because Amaju Pinnick, president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has said that he is “done” with Nigerian coaches. But didn’t we think the NFF was aiming for a foreign coach when Oliseh was suddenly unveiled? It could happen again!

Siasia is experienced in handling Nigerian teams and authorities, and he took the U20 team to the FIFA world cup final in 2005. In 2008, he took the dream team to the Olympic finals, and won the African U23 championship in Dakar to qualify for Rio 2016.

Siasia previously led the Super Eagles to play some good football, the high point of which was a shocking 4-1 defeat of Argentina, but he was fired after the team narrowly failed to qualify for he 20102 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). If NFF could trust him to lead the team on an interim basis, who says the deal can’t become permanent, especially if Egypt is resoundingly defeated over two legs?

VELJKO PAUNOVIC

He is the man behind Serbia’s U20 World Cup glory in New Zealand. Paunovic, who had a rich playing career representing 11 different clubs, including Partizan, Atletico Madrid, Hannover, Rubin Kazan and the Philadelphia Union, started his coaching career with the under-18 team and continued with the under-19s.

He inherited part of the team that won European title in 2013 and led them to the semifinals in the year that followed. A few people among the power brokers in Nigeria’s footballing circles speak very highly of him. It doesn’t always take so long for words to be transformed to action.

CLAUDE LE ROY

He is one of those foreign coaches that successive NFF administrations have coveted, and deservedly so. He is one of the most experienced coaches in African soccer history, but Nigerians do not have fond memories of him, as he led Cameroon to beat Nigeria at the final of 1988 AFCON.

He also led Congo to defeat Eagles at home in AFCON 2015 qualifiers. He has been coaching African countries since 1985 till he retired recently, but will the federation be willing to talk him out of retirement?

MAURICE COOREMAN

Cooreman is currently the coach of Akwa United. He is most remembered for winning the Nigeria Premier League with little-known Ocean Boys in 2006. He reproduced that magic the following year, winning the same title with Enyimba in 2007. On 30 August 2010, Cooreman led Kaduna United to a historic first victory in the federation cup running. In 2015, he helped Ikorodu United win promotion to the premier league

If there is a foreign coach who knows Nigeria so well, it has to be Cooreman. The Belgian is married to a Nigerian, which means his body and soul are both with us. He has previously expressed interest in coaching Nigeria, but at 73 and having previously resigned from a coaching job citing health reasons, the odds are stacked against him.

MILUTIN SREDOVIC

He is arguably the least known name on the list, but his name hasn’t been mentioned just for the fun of it. A few of those who will decide the next coach are positively disposed to his choice, and that could just be all he needs to get the job.

The Serbian has coached in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda for nine years before getting his current job with the Cranes of Uganda.

STEFANO CUSIN

An Italian coach with considerable experience in some of the lesser known footballing countries in Europe, Cusin currently manages Palestinian side, Ahli al Khali. He has also coached in Cameroun, Congo and Libya.

Cusin is virtually unknown in first-grade coaching circles, but he may well be the next Clemens Westerhof; after all, little was known about the Dutch coach before his appointment as Eagles coach in 1989, yet Nigeria can’t claim to have had a more successful coach.