Keshi re-appointment not a mistake, says Pinnick

The Nigeria Football Federation boss has defended the choice of Stephen Keshi as Super Eagles handler despite his failure to land the country 2015 Africa Cup of Nations ticket

President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick has stated that Stephen Keshi’s re-appointment as gaffer of the country’s senior national team was not a mistake.

The former Togo and Mali handler got a two-year contract after ten months of uncertainty over his future with the Super Eagles.

Keshi’s previous contract ended after the World Cup in Brazil, where he took Nigeria to the second round as they lost to France in Brasilia.

Pinnick said that a Stephen Keshi with enhanced capacity, working together with a Technical Study Group and with the benefit of the world –renowned ProZone match preparation software would, in aggregate, is better than any foreign coach. 

“We made no mistake in re-appointing Keshi. In his first term, Keshi did a lot to encourage the boys in the domestic League, and the boy who scored our winning goal at the Africa Cup of Nations, Sunday Mba, was playing in the domestic scene,” Pinnick said on BBC’s Focus on Africa. 

“We don’t live in the clouds. If we wanted a foreign coach, we would probably go for someone in the class of Jose Mourinho or Arsene Wenger. We don’t have that money presently and we don’t want to be owing our coach.

“Our vision is to see the Super Eagles reach the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia. We are very positive and we will work hard towards that,” he concluded.

SOURCE: GOAL.COM