November 18, (THEWILL) – On Thursday morning, unconfirmed reports stated that Gernot Rohr, the manager of the Nigerian senior national football team, has been fired despite his team’s advancement to Africa’s 2022 World Cup playoffs.
However, sources close to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) say Rohr is rather being pressured to leave as coach of the Super Eagles rather than suffering the indignity of being fired.
The German was told flat out that he has lost the trust of his team, the media, and the general public, and that the wisest course of action for all parties involved is to split ways.
After Sunday Oliseh’s rocky stewardship, Rohr was signed in August 2016. He has since guided the Eagles to a Nations Cup in 2019, where they finished third, and a World Cup in 2018, where they were eliminated in the group stages.
According to the contract extension he signed with the NFF in May 2020, the former Bordeaux and Bayern Munich defender earns over $49,000 per year.
“I am happy to announce that the NFF and coach Gernot Rohr have concluded all contractual discussions and he will stay on as Coach of the Super Eagles,” Amaju Pinnick, the NFF president, said.
“We have always had confidence in his abilities and we are confident that the national team can only go higher from here.”
However, the team’s terrible performances, particularly in the 2022 World Cup qualification series, appear to have destroyed that trust. In a group that included Liberia, Cape Verde, and the Central African Republic, the Eagles barely kept their heads above water.
Cameroon hosts the Nations Cup on January 9 and the Super Eagles still have to fight through a World Cup qualifiers play-offs to grab a Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup ticket.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
