Bonfrere drums support for Amuneke as Super Eagles coach
Former Super Eagles Manager, Bonfrere Jo, has thrown his weight behind his ex winger, Emmanuel Amuneke to be appointed as the coach of the senior national team, the Super Eagles saying he would be okay as a Technical Adviser working with the Super Eagles.
Bonfrere Jo, the Atlanta Olympic Gold winning coach who revealed this to Correspondent through a telephone conversation from his base in Holland said that Amuneke has the discipline, tactical and technical competence to lead the Super Eagles to glory.
Recall that after the Nigeria Football Federation severed relationship with the Portuguese handler, Jose Peseiro and the senior national team has been left without a coach; a situation that threw in the Federation’s Technical Director, Augustine Eguavoen as interim Manager.
Following the development, industry stakeholders have been lending their voices towards appointing a top notch coach for the Super Eagles, with former Green Eagles winger, Segun Odegbami strongly opposing a foreign coach stressing that the team need a local Manager of great repute to lead the Super Eagles.
However, Bonfrere Jo aligned with the position of Odegbami but was particular in the man he believed would perfectly do the job and achieve the desired results.
“Yes, I agree Nigeria needs a local coach at the moment. Not a foreigner. But the country will have everything to gain if the authorities should appoint Emmanuel Amuneke for the job. I know him very well. He has a very strong mentality. He has the discipline and technical savvy to achieve results. In fact,if the Federation calls me to provide technical backup to Amuneke,I will gladly accept the task.
“I’m Dutchgerian. I worked so well with Nigeria players, winning great laurels for the country. I still follow Nigeria football and I’m not happy with the speed of her progress. The country needs more speed and the of all the local players I worked with back in the days, I will gladly recommend Emmanuel Amuneke for the job. I will comfortably work with him from behind the scenes and together, we will return Nigeria football to it’s glorious heights”, he said.
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Bonfrere Jo won the Atlanta Olympics gold medal for Nigeria,with Emmanuel Amuneke as one of the overaged players in the team where the winger scored the winning goal against Argentina in the finals.
Amuneke also scored twice against Zambia in the finals of the African Nations Cup in Tunisia, helping Nigeria win the trophy in 1994.
Amuneke, a former Barcelona winger took to coaching after retirement from active football where he won the World Under 17 championship in Chile in 2015 with players like Victor Osimhem.
He also qualified Tanzania for her first ever African Nations Cup in 2019 and has worked with several other clubs in Egypt and Zambia.
Sources from the Nigeria Football Federation said that the authorities would make open it’s choice of the Coach of the Super Eagles soon, assuring they would do everything possible within her powers to appoint the best and most suitable for the job.