African Nations – Foreign Coach v. Local Coach
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A few weeks ago, ex Nigerian international Finidi George was announced as the new coach of the Nigerian national football team – the Super Eagles 🦅 , after fighting off some really fierce competition from both local and foreign coaches. A huge congratulations to him first and foremost 🙌🏽🥳🎉🍾.
His appointment has reignited the debate in the Nigerian football space around whether African nations should use foreign head coaches for their national teams or empower local (or indigenous) coaches more 🤔.
We saw Senegal 🇸🇳 and Ivory Coast 🇨🇮 win the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament with local coaches, Aliou Cisse and Emerse Fae respectively. Also, our nemesis Ghana 🇬🇭 has just reappointed Otto Addo to lead the Black Stars, after an extremely disappointing outing at the last AFCON 🤭🫣. I’m still not sure why he wasn’t the coach to lead the Black Stars to the last edition of AFCON 🤷🏽♀️.
Anyway, in as much as I am a proponent of training and up-skilling local coaches, I am also in support of hiring competent and professional individuals who are capable of doing the job. If that happens to be a local coach, then all good 👍🏽. I certainly believe that Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) and African MAs can do a lot more to encourage and empower the local coaches, having spoken to a few of them who are disappointed with what’s currently on offer. But that’s a discussion for another day…..
It’s been really interesting listening to the diverse perspectives and opinions from football players, fans, sports journalists and administrators on the appointment of Finidi. Some sceptics believe a local coach has been appointed because he’d be easier to manipulate and owe salaries 🤦🏽♀️. Whereas those in support of his appointment believe he’s the perfect man for the job and should be given a chance. One of many concerns has been whether he is strong enough to get us a ticket to the World Cup 🏆. I actually thought Jose Pesiero would have stayed for that, but hey…
The debates and anticipation actually make it more exciting and I can’t wait to see how he gets on. I’m looking forward to seeing whether he scouts for players in the local leagues, considering he played in the local league. I’m also wondering how much freedom he’ll be given to make decisions and whether he’d be able to command the respect of the players, especially those earning big salaries abroad.
What are your thoughts ? Do you feel Finidi is the man to lead Nigeria to the World Cup final? (Or should I start with qualifying for the World Cup 😁)… Having missed out on the last one, missing another would be disastrous 😩, and I don’t think I can bear anymore taunts from our Gold Coast neighbours 🤨.
Very exciting times ahead indeed.. I wish Finidi all the best 👊🏽⚽️
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