This player made me respect Nigerian footballers - Rohr

Head coach of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr, has revealed that working with former Nigerian striker, Victor Agali, at French club OGC Nice, gave him a good impression of Nigerian players.


Agali played under Rohr at Nice in the 2004/2005 season, after moving there from Bundesliga team, Schalke 04.

Rohr especially recalled an incident, where Agali scored a hat-trick to seal a comeback win against a star-studded Monaco side in 2004.

“He (Agali) was my player,” Rohr told reporters in Lagos.

“He played in Germany and I had him in Nice in France. Agali is one of the persons who gave me a good image about Nigerian players.

“I remember when Agali scored a hat-trick in the derby against Monaco. The game was like the rich club against the poor club and we were the poor club.

“Monaco were 3-0 up. They had Didier Deschamps and also had quality players. They had qualified for the final of the 2004 UEFA Champions League. We had the smallest budget in the league.

“So, they were leading 3-0 after 66 minutes but Agali scored a hat-trick in 15 minutes before we scored a fourth goal to win 4-3.

“It was a wonderful emotion for me. With that, I am happy again to be with Nigerian players. Now we have a good team and I think qualifying for Russia though will be difficult but I am very optimistic.”