Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is in talks with former Super Eagles winger, Emmanuel Amuneke, about the position of Technical Director.
Feelers from the Sunday Dankaro Football House in Abuja revealed that the NFF has approached Amuneke who is presently the director in charge of academies in Africa at Misr Lel Makkasa of Egypt to consider accepting an appointment as the Technical Director following the expiration of Bitrus Bewarang’s contract last June
Daniel Amokachi was in line to get the job last month, but it didn’t work out after it emerged that he had been pencilled for a bigger appointment by the federal government as the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Sports, an appointment the former Super Eagles forward has accepted.
“Amuneke has been offered the job of Director Technical by the NFF, but the former national Under-17 World Cup-winning coach is undecided about the job. But NFF president Amaju Pinnick has been talking with him and hoping that he might accept the job to serve his country in higher capacity,” our source who requested anonymity divulged.
“Aside agreeing on the financial terms of the contract, Amuneke is stalling in accepting the job because he still nurses the ambition of coaching the Super Eagles one day. He was categorical that he is not done with coaching and that he hopes to return to the training pitch soon.”
Further checks revealed that the NFF made an initial offer of N3m to Amuneke to leave his job in Egypt and become the Director Technical of the Nigeran football ruling body, but the former Barcelona star laughed off the offer as being too small compared to what he earned at El Makkasa in Egypt.
The 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games gold medallist and AFCON 2004 winner, we gathered, is on $20,000 monthly salary as Misr Lel Makassa’s Director of Academies in Africa. The question now is whether the NFF is ready to break bank to land its target.
Amunuke guided the Taifa Stars of Tanzanian to the last AFCON in Egypt. He has also worked as assistant coach at Al-Hazem (Saudi Arabia), and coached Al Khatoum of Sudan, as well as Nigeria’s national Under-17 team for four years.
