Stories By Amaechi Agbo
Despite having a poor Curriculum Vitae with no knowledge of African football, new Super Eagles Coach, Jose Peseiro will earn seventy thousand dollars ($70, 000.00) as monthly salary for initial 12-month contract.
Although details of the contract agreement between the Nigeria Football Federation l, NFF and the newly announced Head Coach of the Super Eagles are not open in the public, it has been gathered that the 62-year old will sign an initial one year contract with the NFF subject to renewal if his performances merit extension
The NFF issued a press statement on Sunday announcing it had settled for the 62-year-old, the federation was silent on the details of the contract agreement with the Portuguese manager.
It was gathered the new Super Eagles Head Coach will receive $70,000 monthly (over N29m) from which he would pay his two incoming personal assistants.
It was further learnt that the NFF is signing just a year’s deal with Peseiro with an option for another year depending on how things turn out in the initial 12 months.
Among other clauses in his contract, Peseiro is expected to watch 60 per cent of domestic league games as he has been mandated to discover homegrown talents for the national team.
Peseiro Emerged Cheapest Option
While a handful of other coaches were also shortlisted for the Super Eagles job, Peseiro in the end turned out to be the cheapest option.
Sources familiar with the NFF’s recruitment process said other coaches that could have been hired for the national team were either not affordable or not available for the job.
“A number of other coaches were also contacted but it is either the salary they were asking for was too high or they were not even favourably disposed to a national team job at the moment,” a source at the NFF told PREMIUM TIMES
“Peseiro turned out to be the cheapest option for the NFF and that was why they settled for him.”
This is the second time the NFF is announcing Peseiro as the coach for Nigeria having hurriedly done the same on the eve of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon.
Then, it was announced that the Portuguese will be an observer while Austin Eguavoen will be solely in charge of the Eagles at the continental tournament.
The ‘appointment’ of Peseiro by the NFF was, then, contained in a communique issued after the NFF’s executive council meeting held on December 29, 2021.
Peseiro’s Poor CV
José Vitor dos Santos Peseiro, 62, is a Portuguese who played as a striker in his days and has wide and varied experience coaching clubs and national teams across four different continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.
An educationist with a degree in physical education/sports sciences, Peseiro has top-level coaching qualifications/training and has coached at Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Panathinaikos, and Rapid Bucharest.
He also had stints at Sporting Braga, Victoria Guimaraes, Al-Hilal, Al-Wahda, Al-Ahly Cairo, Sharjah FC, and Real Madrid, as well as serving as Head Coach of the Saudi Arabia and Venezuela national teams.
Though well-travelled and with vast experience, Peseiro appears to have more sack letters than trophies but it would be out of place to outrightly conclude he will not succeed with the three-time African champions, Nigeria,
From Panathinaikos to FC Porto to Braga and even Saudi Arabia, there has hardly ever been any happy ending wherever he has found himself.
That said, the Portuguese tactician has some notable moments winning silverware, with the last being the league title with Al-Ahly.
He is saddled with rebuilding the Nigeria team to a formidable one and his first outing will be leading the Super Eagles for the upcoming tour of the United States of America.
There, the three-time African champions will slug it out with Mexico and Ecuador in friendlies.
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