Master of Qualifiers, Slave At Competitions Holding Nigeria By The Balls

Master of Qualifiers, Slave At Competitions Holding Nigeria By The Balls By Biodun Muhammed Gernot Rohr’s 5-year stay in the saddle as Super Eagles coach could be easily forgotten in Nigeria’s football history because of the trophyless that riddled the period. After taking over as the manager of Nigeria in August 2016, many had high hopes of Nigeria’s national team quickly rediscovering its glory days. And the team initially looked like it was towing that line. The Franco-German guided the 2013 AFCON winners to a nervy 1-0 victory over Tanzania in his first game in charge and the performances afterwards were pretty good until he tasted his first loss, a 2-0 home defeat to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, the first of its kind for South Africa in Nigeria. Interestingly, Nigeria qualified easily for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia as they shocked the likes of Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia in the so called group of death, thereby becoming Africa’s first team to book a place at the competition after beating the Chipolopolos of Zambia 1-0. Under Rohr’s tutelage, Nigeria fumbled at the World Cup, incurring defeats against Croatia and Argentina while only boasting of a moment of respite against an Icelandic national team that paraded a good number of amateurs. Consequently, Super Eagles ambition of surpassing their best performance of a second round finish at the World Cup fell like a pack of cards. The 2019 Nations Cup is another example of Rohrs inability to bring grist to the mill, in spite having arguably the best crop of talents on the continent at his disposal. Nigeria finished third at the tournament, a feat that continues to play second fiddle to the success of Late Stephen Keshi in the 2013 edition of the biennial competition. Undeniably, the former Bordeaux player’s time with the Eagles has been punctuated with selection and substitution problems in decisive games. Against Argentina and Algeria, two decisive games at the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations respectively, Rohr’s inability to read the game, infuse new bloods and defuse the palpable tension in his team tore apart the Super Eagles' composure at the nick of stoppage time in those games. A Marcus Rojo’s strike in Russia and a Riyad Mahrez’s freekick in Egypt put paid to Super Eagles’ hopes at the World Cup and AFCON respectively.    Rohr’s sympathizers would however argue that the former Bayern Munich player brought in new faces to the Eagles, won few high-profile friendly games and qualified Nigeria for every tournament during his tenure. But the question is how do you measure the success of a National team manager? Is it winning titles that count or winning high profile friendlies? For a coach who was shortlisted but rejected by Guinea in July 2016 and embraced by Nigeria one month later, one would say his winning return is not entirely bad. 35 wins out of 64 is something good you can write home about. Unfortunately, those victories excluded several decisive games. Looking at the various lists of invited Super Eagles players during Rohr’s tenure that is gradually reaching its elastic limit, it is difficult not to spot 2-3 new rookies being introduced to the list each time there is an international engagement. Some would say that is understandable for a coach who was at some stages owed salaries of up to 8 months. Shockingly, many Nigerians don’t know the contents of the contractual terms and agreement between the Nigeria Football Federation and the coach of the Eagles, these Nigerians include many football journalists in and outside the country. And it begs the question, is the NFF a clandestine organization? When the contract of Rohr was renewed, Nigerians were again left in the dark as many kept asking “what are the terms and conditions of the new contract?” Interestingly, NFF appears tired of the relationship with Rohr but severing ties with the former Bayern Munich player is herculean as they need to cough out whopping sums of money that some have mentioned is in the region of $903, 000 an equivalent of 370,230,000 Naira. The Federation knows the marriage with Rohr can bring it down but how to pay off their over 5-year partner is a serious headache for the top echelons of the NFF as they continue to consult their corporate partners on how to close the “Gernot Rohr” chapter. With AFCON fast approaching, it remains to be seen if the former coach of Gabon will be in charge while holding the balls of NFF at the Nations Cup in Cameroon or he will be paid off the humongous sum several previous indigenous coaches only dreamt of getting.