With his appointment today to replace Sunday Oliseh who resigned earlier in the day as Head Coach of the Nigerian national football team, the Super Eagles, Samson Siasia has promised to take the Eagles to greater height in the international arena.
The Nigeria Football Association (NFF) had moved quickly to announce the name of Siasia as an Interim Head Coach, with Emmanuel Amuneke as first assistant coach.
Oliseh who had been having a running battle with NFF over what he called poor match results and unpaid wages, was appointed coach a little over seven months ago but today, announced his resignation on Twitter.
Stepping into Oliseh’s shoes, Siasia said that Nigeria still stands a chance of qualifying for the 2017 Nations Cup and the 2018 World Cup under his tutelage.
The Beijing 2008 silver medal coach said that the task ahead of him and his technical crew is achievable even though he acknowledged: “I know the task is huge after Sunday Oliseh ran away from the job. I’m still thinking on how to approach it but we would make sure that the invited players give 120 per cent in the games.
“For me, it is a great honour to serve the country and I want to plead for everybody’s support in our quest to qualify for the Nations Cup because Nigeria must be at the tournament.”
Siasia said that a communication channel aimed at conditioning the players mind for the task ahead has been opened and would make public the list of players that would prosecute the all-important qualifying ties against the Pharaohs of Egypt.
“I hope to meet with the technical committee of the NFF soon and look for the best possible means to make Nigerians proud.”
SiaOne, as he is fondly called, will also be assisted by Salisu Yusuf and Alloy Agu. [myad]
