Decorated African coach Pitso Mosimane has revealed how close he came to becoming the new coach of the senior national team of Nigeria following the exit of Jose Peseiro as coach of the team in February, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Mosimane has never hidden his desire to be the coach of the Nigerian team after his performances on the African continent and also in Saudi Arabia. He led Mamelodi Sundowns to the CAF Champions League trophy, a feat he repeated with Al Ahly of Egypt.
The one time coach of the senior national team of South Africa who recently left his role as coach of Saudi Arabia side Abha FC following their relegation has now revealed how former Nigeria international Austine Okocha pushed for him to get the Super Eagles job, before the appointment of Finidi George as the substantive coach of the team one month ago.
“Super Eagles, what a team they have,” said Mosimane, whose face lit up with excitement when talking about the quality of the West Africans.
“The calls were coming, the talks were there. Jay Jay Okocha was leading this thing and begging me,” said Mosimane on Metro FM’s Sports Night Amplified.
“There was never a deal on the table, it was just talks. This one calls and calls from the Federation. In football, the contract must be on the table and sign it. If that is not really happening, there is no deal,” he added.
“You can never deny a chance to coach Osimhen and all those guys are top talent in the world. Nigeria struggles with the system and how they play”.
The five time winner of the South Africa Premier League went further to give tips to the present coach of the team on how to get the best out of the team after a poor run in the world cup qualifiers, where they are 5th in their group, four point behind three other teams in Rwanda , South Africa and Benin Republic respectively.
“When you have many of good players, it is nearly the same like Brazil, but where is the World Cup?
“When you have too much talent and the coach doesn’t even know who to play and who to play, the coach becomes impatient that the game is not looking good, then you make changes because you’ve got somebody else on the bench,” said Mosimane about the Super Eagles who are yet to win a game in the qualifiers series.
“When you have a settled team, like France, [you know] it is Kylian Mbappe who is going to play no matter what. Ousman Dembele can dribble everybody, but Mbappe is going to play. It is not a question mark.”
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
