BREAKING: Pinnick Confirms Rohr Will Stay On As Super Eagles Coach

By
Busybuddies
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Nigeria Football Federation president Amaju Pinnick has confirmed that Gernot Rohr will continue as Super Eagles manager until the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Both parties had been locked in months-long negotiations over a contract extension for Rohr whose original deal was set to expire in June.

The former Bordeaux manager confirmed he had signed a deal as earlier reported by busybuddiesng.com and Pinnick has corroborated that stance in a series of tweets on Wednesday.

While the deal features diminished financial terms and stringent provisions requiring Rohr to live in Nigeria and develop domestic-based players, the NFF president said he never lost faith in Rohr’s ability to move Nigeria’s football forward.

Pinnick, however, made it clear that certain deliverables were “sacrosanct” to both the NFF and the Sports Ministry.

These include qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and winning a fourth continental diadem for Nigeria at the 2021 Africa Nations Cup in Cameroon.

“I’m 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. We have always had confidence in his abilities and we are confident that the national team can only go higher from here,” Pinnick posted on Twitter.

“We can now focus on qualifying for the World Cup and winning the Nations Cup. In truth, these are sacrosanct and Coach Rohr is aware of these conditions. Like the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development has rightly noted; we are uncompromising in these goals.

“The board of the Federation & I are totally in agreement with the minister on the goals for the team and it is unwavering. In the same vein, I would like to thank our sponsors, especially AITEO’s support for our football is unquantifiable, even in these difficult times and I cannot stress enough, how much of a rock they have been. Thank you, AITEO. With the distraction of the contract talks out of the way now, we can now face our football on the pitch, totally. Again, I never lost confidence in Gernot Rohr’s ability to take our football forward and I’m convinced our football will only get better from here on,” he concluded.

Rohr was first appointed as manager of the three-time African champions in 2016 and led the African powerhouses to the group stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and a third-place finish at the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt.

If Rohr sees out his contract, he will become the longest-serving national team head coach since Dutchman Clemens Westerhof and would hope to be as successful as Westerhof who led Nigeria to a second Nations Cup title in 1994.

The former Gabon coach has been fairly successful in his time in charge of the Super Eagles and has overseen an overhauling of the team achieving an exciting blend of youth, promise and experience while also encouraging the integration of foreign-born players into the national team.

Since taking charge of his first game against Tanzania on 3 September 2016, Rohr has overseen a total of 40 matches, winning 23, losing nine and drawing eight games.

The Super Eagles have also scored 61 goals and conceded 34 in his time in charge.

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