Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has issued a two-month ultimatum to the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF over his future with the national team, saying he would quit his post if things are not regularized.
Nigeria are unbeaten since the conclusion of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, registering back-to-back impressive draws against Ukraine and Brazil and they have maximum points from their first two group matches of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Rohr recently met with Nigeria’s Sports Minister, Sunday Dare and it is claimed that the Minister held talks with the German over extending his contract for two or three years, with his current agreement with the Nigerian Federation set to expire in June 2020.
‘’There is tremendous potential in this team, with great players like Osimhen,’’ Rohr explained to sofoot.com
‘’There are interesting prospects, such as the AFCON 2021, the World Cup 2022. But first we must regularize things’’.
Rohr added that from January 1, 2020, he will be” free to engage elsewhere,” if nothing is settled by then.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers which start in March, Rohr has revealed he hopes some of the foreign-born players would have pledged their international futures to Nigeria by then.
Since Rohr arrived, there has been an influx of players with dual nationality representing Nigeria. The likes of Alex Iwobi, William Ekong, Leon Balogun, Joe Aribo, Ola Aina, Tyronne Ebuehi, Semi Ajayi and Maduka Okoye have all pledged their international future to Nigeria.
And that won’t change anytime soon despite calls from critics for Rohr to include NPFL in his Super Eagles squad. The former Bordeaux manager revealed he hopes some of the players they have been trying to convince to switch allegiance to Nigeria would have done so before the World Cup qualifiers start in March 2020.
Speaking on about his plans for the World Cup qualifiers on Super Eagles youtube page, the former Burkina Faso manager said he will also keep an eye on some of his regulars.
“I think at first, we have to follow what they are doing, our players, Rohr said. We have to take some news on our injured goalkeeper, Uzoho who has been operated with success last week.
“And we have still to work on some departments in our team, and like we do always, we will scout our players, we will watch the games, we will go and meet some of them, and we will have also perhaps good news if one of the big players we are searching for who can play for two countries accepts to play for us.”
The 2022 World Cup qualifiers for the African section will kick off in March with the draws set to be conducted later this year. The teams will be split into ten groups of four teams with the winners advancing to play each other in a home and away tie to determine Africa’s five representatives.
Source: THISDAY
