Despite the hue and cry that trailed Super Eagles’ ouster in the Round of 16 of the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations currently going on in Cameroon, a former President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, has taken the positives from the three-time African Champions 1-0 defeat to the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
Maigari told Completesports.com in an exclusive interview that in spite of the defeat, there are positives to be taken from the Super Eagles’ campaign in Cameroon, reasoning that the squad played attractive football at the tournament which had been lacking in the senior national team under expartriate coaches.
“I had expected the Super Eagles to go beyond the Round of 16 at the tournament. They showed great form and character right for. the group games. But that is football for you,” Maigari told Completesports.com.
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“I enjoyed every bit of their games, they played like a team well handled. You could see the finesse in their game and I commend coach Eguavoen for doing a wonderful work on the team despite the short period he was in charge.”
Maigari added: “This goes to confirm my stand on Nigerian coaches. You remember when former FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, wrote to commend me for having the trust and faith in one of our own, (late) Stephen Keshi, to appoint him as Super Eagles coach.
“Blatter did that twice. The second time was after our Nations Cup win in 2013 in South Africa. So, I believe Eguavoen did well. The solution to our football problems lies in our own hands.
“Like Blatter said in his (second) commendation letter to me, it is only indigenous coaches that know their players’ character, mentality, culture of the people and attitude.
“They work with commitment, determination because they know that they don’t have any other country than theirs. Like I said earlier, it is unfortunate that the Eagles lost out, but I think they put a massively improved performance than we had been seeing them in recent years,” Maigari stressed.
The post Exclusive: ‘Eguavoen Rekindled My Faith In Indigenous Coaches Which Blatter Had Commended’ –Maigari appeared first on Complete Sports.
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