Newly-appointed Abia Warriors coach Imama Amapakabo says his dream is to bring glory to the Umuahia-based side.

The former Rangers handler stated this on Wednesday in Umuahia shortly after signing a two-year contract to lead the modest Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) outfit.

However, the former Super Eagles assistant coach says it would require the combined effort of everyone at the club to make the dream a reality.

“Everybody dreams, you know it will be folly of myself and the management if we have this pact and we don’t aspire,” the former Golden Eaglets goalkeeper said. “But a lot of work has to be done.

“Let us not forget this team, in the past years, have been able to sustain themselves. They are one of those teams that came up after they were elevated to the elite division, they’ve not gone down.

“But you know they’ve been a mid-table team, and for them to want to aspire, even the bible says ‘he who aspires for the post of a Bishop, aspires for a good thing’.

“So, I think it is our place, all of us are aspiring. And we believe that in the harmony of unification of working, we would be able to like get it right for us to get the result that we want.”

The Rivers State-born tactician disclosed that the ambition of Abia Warriors and the need to be closer to his family in Port Harcourt prompted his decision to join the club, adding that he had to reject several other offers to team up with the Umuahia-based side.

“I had a call this morning (Wednesday) and if I followed the call I had this morning, I wouldn’t have been here,” the former El Kanemi Warriors coach disclosed. “But I am principled, I’m stubborn. I went to Maiduguri when everybody thought it was not possible. I went to coach a team (El Kanemi Warriors) there, everybody was thinking ‘this boy dey craze’.

“Port Harcourt to Umuahia is about, give or take, two hours drive. I want to be closer home. And I believe that after speaking to the board of Abia Warriors, I noticed that they are ambitious. Ambitious suits my body, that’s why I am here.

“A lot of people (other clubs) have talked; they are ambiguous in what they have said, they didn’t convince me. I think the Abia Warriors management have been able to convince me that they want to match talk with action.”

Amapakabo shot to national prominence in 2016 when he led Rangers to their first league title in 32 years, playing a brand of free-flowing attacking football that endeared him to the heart of many followers.

In Umuahia, though, the state of the turf could pose a big threat to free-flowing football, something the coach admits as a big challenge.

“The challenge, in all honesty, that everybody has posted to me is one thing – our playing turf. So, that’s why you saw me when I came here I started walking around, trying to feel the turf to see how it is, because even in the Laws of the Game, FIFA says the number one thing is the pitch.

“We have to see how best we would be able to try to manage this turf,” the immediate past Olympic Eagles coach stated.