I will take Nigerian football to a level nobody has taken them to before - Amokachi

Finnish second division side JS Hercules coach Daniel Amokachi still nurses the ambition of becoming the head coach of Nigeria’s senior national team and believes he will excel with the team.


Amokachi, who has had spells as Super Eagles assistant under the late Amodu Shuaibu and the late Stephen Keshi, says the new Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr is lucky to get the job with the current crop of talented players in the team.

“I know that one day I’ll be the head coach of the Nigeria national team and I will take Nigerian football to a level nobody has taken them to before,” former Nigeria and Everton striker Amokachi told The Guardian. “The ability of players we have these days … any coach given this job is lucky.

“In my head, I know how we’d play and the blueprint is ready to go. With the talent there now, we should be surpassing my generation, the players from the 1990s. It’s sad, because people still refer back 20 years without looking at what we’ve got today, but the quality is second to none.

“They seem to have given everybody except me an opportunity but, by God’s grace, it will happen.”

The former IfeanyiUbah FC coach, who won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria as a player, added: “I’m 44 this year and I’m still learning, tactically and managerially. For me, to be head coach here is incredible, a grace from heaven. You have to start somewhere to get somewhere, and Africans just don’t get these opportunities.

“We’ll see how things go at the end of the season. I feel at home here, and that’s the most important thing. It’s why I’m still here. If I didn’t feel at home I’d be long, long gone.”