Onigbinde Reacts To Gernot Rohr’s New Contract

Former national team coach Adegboye Onigbinde has described the quest to extend the contract of Gernot Rohr as coach of the Super Eagles by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as nothing but a ‘circus’.

Onigbinde stoked a round of controversy with his comment. In his words “I think Nigeria and Nigerians are being insulted with the melodrama between Rohr and our football authorities over this issue of renewing his contract,” surmised Onigbinde who led the Super Eagles to the 2002 Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup.

“We have a foreign coach who has been with us for more than three years and the best he has achieved in three years was a bronze medal from the AFCON,” explained Onigbinde who nearly conquered the continent in 1984 with Shooting Stars of Ibadan in the rested African Cup of Champions now known as CAF Champions League Trophy.

“Our coach who we are trying to renew his contract keep saying that the quality of Nigerian football (domestic league) is poor but are Nigerian players born differently?

“I think Nigeria and Nigerians are being insulted with the melodrama between Rohr and our football authorities over this issue of renewing his contract,” surmised Onigbinde who led the Super Eagles to the 2002 Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup.

Rohr has been on the job since 2016 and it was under his watch that the Super Eagles qualified for both the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup and the Egypt 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). While the team failed to progress to the knockout stages of Russia 2018, they came out of Cairo with a bronze medal.

The former CAF and FIFA coaching instructor said Rohr has not done anything meaningful to uplift the standard of players from the domestic league.

Recently, Onigbinde picked former national team captain, Vincent Enyeama, as Nigeria’s best goalkeeper in the history of the country’s football.