Plans by Nigeria’s coach to lead the team to the Confed Cup in Brazil this June look uncertain following news that he resigned his position – and withdrew his resignation – just after the Super Eagles’ victory in the African Cup of Nations (ACN) final.
Plans by Nigeria’s coach to lead the team to the Confed Cup in Brazil this June look uncertain following news that he resigned his position – and withdrew his resignation – just after the Super Eagles’ victory in the African Cup of Nations (ACN) final.
It’s been reported that Stephen Keshi withdrew his letter following an intervention by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to South African media, the 51-year-old coach told a South African sports radio show that he had formally presented his letter of resignation to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) after Sunday night’s 1-0 win over Burkina Faso.
“Stephen Keshi has just announced that he handed over his resignation letter after the game,” tweeted presenter Robert Marawa.
But the statement was immediately rebuffed by officials from Nigerian soccer’s governing body.
“As I speak with you the NFF has not received any letter of resignation from Keshi, he’s still Super Eagles’ manager until there is a formal letter from him to the contrary,” spokesman Emeka Inyama told another radio station.
“Keshi has a running contract with the NFF; he just won the Nations Cup title which we last won 19 years ago and everybody is happy with him.”
It is believed that President Jonathan’s intervention prompted Keshi to issue a statement in which he said that he was remaining as the country’s national team coach.
In the statement he also thanked Nigeria’s sports minister Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi for his involvement.
“While I have had cause to express my displeasure over some issues that happened in the course of our participation [in the Africa Cup of Nations], which my team won by the grace of God, especially concerning my relationship with the Nigerian Football Federation, I have since had opportunity to discuss the various issues with all concerned,” he said.
Keshi, who captained the Super Eagles when they won the ACN in 1994, has had an uneasy relationship with the NFF since his appointment as coach some 18 months ago.
Tensions worsened when just before the ACN semi-finals in South Africa, Keshi warned at a press conference that he would “pack his bags and leave” if the NFF did not give him its 100-per-cent backing.
Media report said the federation had no hope that the Super Eagles would go far and had chartered a flight home for the team to leave shortly after their match against Ivory Coast, which Nigeria eventually won by two goals to one.
Wherever his future lies, Keshi will remain in the record books as the second man ever to lift the ACN trophy as both player and coach after Egypt’s Mahmoud El Gohary.
History will also record him as the first black African coach who won the cup for the first time for 21 years after Ivory Coast’s Yeo Martial in 1992.
