Football

Super Eagles Franco-German Coach sacked

…As NFF intensifies search for new coach

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The coach of the Nigerian national team, the Super Eagles,Gernot Rohr, has been sacked.

The Franco-German head coach whose performance has been lackluster especially on the recent 1-1 draw with the less fanciful Cape Verde.

He was appointed manager of the Nigerian national team in five years ago (2016).

Decision of Rohr’s sack was reached after a company associated with the senior national team agreed to pay the termination clause in his contract.

The Nigeria football body, Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has communicated the decision to the former Niger and Burkina Faso coach, and has started the search for a new coach who will pilot the affairs of the team for the 2022 World Cup Playoffs, and also the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon next year.

Nigeria will play any of Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Mali or DR Congo for a place in Qatar 2022.

Prior to his appointment as Super Eagles head Coach, he had been the manager of some other football teams in other parts of the world.

In 1996, he managed Girondins de Bordeaux to the UEFA Cup final, where they lost to Bayern Munich over two legs, 0–2 away and 1–3 at home. Bordeaux’s run to the final included a famous 3–0 win over AC Milan in the quarter-finals. From October 1998 until April 1999, he was sports director of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Rohr was fired by Étoile Sportive du Sahel following a third-place finish in the league, outside of the 2010 CAF Champions League places, on 15 May 2009.

On 9 June 2009, he was named as the new head coach of the Ligue 2 team FC Nantes, his contract running until 30 June 2011. On 3 December 2009, he was fired by FC Nantes and replaced by Jean-Marc Furlan.

On 21 February 2010, Rohr replaced French coach Alain Giresse at the helm of the Gabon national football team