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Tag: Coach

  • Assistant Coach of Super Sand Eagles, Agbo, is dead

    Mr Chukwuma Agbo, Assistant Coach, Beach Soccer national team, the Super Sand Eagles, is dead.

    His death came barely 10 days after the demise of Taiwo Ogunjobi, who passed on, on Monday, Feb. 11.

    Agbo, former Rangers International and Delta Force Head Coach’s death was confirmed on Wednesday by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

    In a tweet via its official Twitter handle (@thenff), the NFF said Agbo’s death was sad:

    “Yet another painful loss! We are sad to hear of the passing of Assistant Coach of our Beach Soccer National team, the Super Sand Eagles, Chukwuma Agbo.

    ‘‘Our prayers are with his family at this time. May his soul rest in peace,” the NFF said.

    The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that Agbo died on Wednesday after a brief illness.

    The late Agbo, who resigned as the head coach of Delta Force in January, led the club to the Nigeria National League, NNL Super 8, where they ended fourth in Group B.

  • Carlo Ancelotti offered job of Italian coach

    Former Bayern Munich Carlo Ancelotti is set to be given the job of reviving the fortunes of Italy’s national team, according to reports on Tuesday.

    Ancelotti, who was sacked by the Bavarians last September, met with Italian Football Federation (FIGC) commissioner Roberto Fabbricini and sub-commissioner Alessandro Costacurta in a Rome hotel on Monday, Corriere dello Sport reported.

    And Sky Sport Italia said the 58-year-old has been offered a two-year position, which is likely to be less lucrative than his previous contract with the German champions.

    Italy have been without a permanent coach since Gian Piero Ventura was sacked after they failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years following defeat by Sweden in a two-legged playoff in November.

    Ancelotti, who has also managed Chelsea, Real Madrid and Juventus, has three Champions League titles to his name as a coach. He has also won the league in Italy, France, Germany and England.

    The FIGC budget for a new coach and his staff is five million euros ($6.1 million) per year, which would be a big drop from what Ancelotti earned at Bayern Munich.

    Costacurta is reported to have offered Ancelotti, who has also been linked with former club Chelsea and the soon-to-be-vacant job at Arsenal, a free hand in choosing his staff.

    Ancelotti’s son Davide, who was his assistant at Bayern, could play a role as well as former stars such as Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon and Paolo Maldini.

    Costacurta, who was appointed to find a successor to Ventura, set a dateline of May 20 for the appointment of a new coach.

    Among the other names touted were Zenit St Petersburg coach Roberto Mancini, Chelsea boss Antonio Conte and former Leicester coach Claudio Ranieri, now in charge of French club Nantes.

    Italy Under-21 coach Di Biagio, 46, has been holding the position on an interim basis.

    AFP

  • NFF releases list of new coaches for national teams

    The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Monday released the names of coaching crews of all the national teams.

    New coaches were not named for the senior men team (Super Eagles), U20 women (Falconets) and U17 women (Flamingos) because the contracts of their current handlers are running.

    The chairman of the technical and development committee of the NFF, Yusuf Ahmed, told thenff.com that the appointments take effect immediately.

    Ahmed, who is also vice chairman of the NFF Strategy Committee, said: “All the coaches will be unveiled at a later date, alongside the coaching crews of the U20 and U17 girls that were appointed earlier as a result of their World Cup qualifying campaigns.”

    The coaches are as follows:

    SUPER EAGLES B/OLYMPIC MEN TEAM: Salisu Yusuf (Head Coach); Imama Amapakabo; Kennedy Boboye; Fidelis Ilechukwu; Alloy Agu (Goalkeepers’ Trainer)

    U20 MEN (FLYING EAGLES): Paul Aigbogun (Head Coach); Abdullahi Maikaba; Abubakar Bala; Hassan Abdallah (Scouting); Suleiman Shuaibu (Goalkeepers’ Trainer)

    U17 BOYS TEAM (GOLDEN EAGLETS): Manu Garba (Head Coach); Nduka Ugbade; Jolomi Atune Ali; Bunmi Haruna (Scouting); Abideen Baruwa Olatunji (Goalkeepers’ Trainer)

    U15 BOYS TEAM (FUTURE EAGLES): Alala Danladi Nasidi (Head Coach); Haruna Usman ‘Ilerika’; Ahmed Lawal Dankoli; Patrick Bassey (Scouting); Ernest Salolome (Goalkeepers’ Trainer)

    U13 BOYS TEAM: Jolomi Atune Ali (Head Coach); Jude Agada; Abdullahi Umar Tyabo; Adewale Laloko (Scouting); Adeoye Onigbinde (Goalkeepers’ Trainer)

  • NFF appoints Thomas Dennerby as head coach of Super Falcons

    The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Thursday announced the appointment of a top Swedish football coach, Thomas Dennerby, to take the role of head coach of the Nigeria national women’s team, Super Falcons, the federation announced Thursday.

    The contract allows Dennerby to come into the job with an assistant, Jorgen Petersson, who is a highly experienced Swedish coach nominated by Dennerby.

    Dennerby, who spent nine years with Hammarby IF of Allsvesnkan and played in the European Cup in 1983 and 1985, won 34 caps for Swedish junior teams between 1975 and 1981.

    He coached the Swedish Women’s Senior Team between 2005 and 2012, during which the team played at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and the 2007 and 2011 FIFA World Cup finals, winning bronze at the later tournament.

    He also served as youth coach for Stockholm FA and worked in various capacities for former club Hammarby between 1993 and 2001.

    More recently, he did scouting and analyses for the Swedish FA at the 2013 and 2017 European Championships, the 2016 Olympics and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.

    Petersson has worked with several top Swedish clubs including Moheda IF, Osters IF, Vaxjo, Alvesta Golf, IFK Varmamo, Malmo FF, Kalmar FF and Linkopings FC, was assistant coach of the Swedish U23 women team between 2006-2012 and scouted for the Swedish women national team at last year’s European Championship.

    The appointment is in line with the pledge made by NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, to get a world –class coach to take the Super Falcons and other women national teams to the next level (of competing creditably and for laurels at global championships), and who would also work assiduously with the federation to ensure robust development of women football in Nigeria.

    Pinnick expressed delight that the process had gone smoothly and assured the coaches of a conducive working environment to achieve the set milestones.

    “The NFF decided to go for a coach of the calibre of Thomas Dennerby for three reasons: to sustain and enhance the Super Falcons’ dominance on the African scene; to take the Falcons and the other women teams to the next level of challenging for laurels at global competitions like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup and; to generally lay the foundation for the real development of women’s football in our country,” Shehu Dikko, NFF 2nd Vice President/Chairman of Strategy, told thenff.com.

    Dikko added: “Dennerby will live in Nigeria most of the time and support the other women teams whenever he has the time. The contract is until the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in the initial, with the right for automatic renewal subject to meeting performance milestones as agreed. He will be in Nigeria very soon for the public unveiling.

    “The NFF Technical and Development Committee has already shortlisted three Nigerians to work with Messrs Dennerby and Petersson as assistant coaches and goalkeeper trainer. These three will resume work soon to start preparing the team for the upcoming WAFU Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire pending the resumption of Dennerby and Petersson,” he said.

    The three coaches who will work with Dennerby and Petersson will be announced soon.

     

  • Croatian national team coach Tomislav Obradovic slams Nigeria Quality

    Croatian national team coach Tomislav Obradovic says that Nigeria do not have the quality to overcome them in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

    Croatia are set to face the Super Eagles in their opening World Cup, Group D match on 16 June 2018 at the Kaliningrad Stadium.

    Obradovic has some experience with African teams having coached the Rwandan U-20 National Team for two and a half years, and almost qualified the country for the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

    “Where are their (Nigeria’s) world-class players?” said the Croatian manager.

    “As a team I do not think they have world-class quality. Why do I say that? They have too many players with the same characteristics.

    “They cannot beat Croatia. Not in one segment of the game. Neither technical, tactical, nor organisational, nor in any sense.”

    Tomislav Obradovic warned the Croatian team that Nigeria’s counter attack could be dangerous because they have fast players.

  • Justin Gatlin Gatlin’s coach & agent face anti-doping investigation

    Athletics anti-doping officials have launched an investigation into what IAAF president Lord Coe called “serious allegations” about world champion sprinter Justin Gatlin’s coach and an agent.

    The Daily Telegraph said an agent linked to Gatlin, Robert Wagner, offered to “illicitly supply performance-enhancing drugs” to undercover reporters.

    And it said Gatlin’s coach, former Olympic gold medallist Dennis Mitchell, told reporters that athletes are able to get away with doping because the drugs they use cannot be detected by tests.

    Both deny the allegations.

    The paper said the journalists had posed as representatives of a film company wanting to make a sports film who were looking for a coach to train their star to look like an athlete.

    The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) – set up by athletics world governing body the Iaaf – and the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), said they had opened an investigation into the claims.

    “Investigations stemming from tips and whistleblowers play a critical role in anti-doping efforts,” Usada said in a statement. “We are presently coordinating with the Athletics Integrity Unit in order to investigate these claims fully.

    “As with all investigations, we encourage individuals with information to come forward as an important tool to help protect clean athletes. Importantly, individuals are innocent unless and until the established process determines otherwise. It’s only fair to let due process occur before jumping to any conclusions.”

    Lord Coe said: “These allegations are extremely serious and I know the independent Athletics Integrity Unit will investigate in accordance with its mandate.”

    American Gatlin, 35, who has served two doping bans, won 100m gold at August’s World Championships in London, beating Usain Bolt in the Jamaican’s final individual 100m race before retiring.

    Gatlin’s legal representatives said the sprinter had sacked Mitchell and said he had more than five years’ worth of official drugs tests to show “he has never tested positive for any banned substance”, the paper reported.

    In a statement to the Daily Telegraph, Mitchell said: “I never suggested in any way that any of my current athletes used any banned substances or that I was familiar with training any of my current athletes with those substances.”

    Wagner told the paper: “I wasn’t involved in doping. Obviously I played along because I knew what was going on. I had to get them hooked.”

    BBC Sports

  • World Cup: Former Eagles coach cautions on team selection

    World Cup: Former Eagles coach cautions on team selection

    The former coach of the Golden Eagles, Godwin Izilein, says Nigeria needs players that will make name for the country at the World Cup and not those who want to know Russia.

    He stated this in an interview with the Sports Journalist, in Benin on Thursday.

    He said with players with who were hungry for success and make name for themselves, the country would surpass her previous record of second round qualification at the Mundial.

    Izilein, who was also a former coach of the Super Falcons, expressed happiness with the plan so far made by the the country football handlers towards a successful outing in Russia.

    “I am happy with the preparation being made by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), especially with the match against Argentina and plan to play about five grade A friendlies.

    “If the coaches can match this up by going for players who will make name for the country and not those who only want to be in Russia to know the country, tremendous success awaits the Nigeria.”

    Speaking further, Izilein said the coaches must work hard in the area of goal keeping .

    “I am really worried about our goalkeeper. We are all witness to the first goal scored by the Argentines in the friendly. For me, we need to bring Enyeama back to man the goal post for us.

    “We have top quality strikers in the team now that Ahmed Musa may most likely be edged out of the team to Russia.

    “Similarly, I am also happy with top performance of the team’s new recruit in the left and right wing of the defence.

    ” The competition there is now good to the extent that Echiejele needs to work had to retain what had naturally became his.

    “I must warn our handlers to be careful not to use sentiment and ethnicity to select players for the world cup,” he said.

  • Rafa Nadal to go on tours without his coach

    Rafa Nadal to go on tours without his coach

     

    Rafael Nadal’s uncle and coach, Toni Nadal, has confirmed that he will no longer accompany the tennis star on tour.

    He claimed he was being left out of decision making.

    “From next year, I will no longer follow Rafael on the circuit and I will focus exclusively on our (tennis) academy,” he was quoted as saying on the Italian website tennisitaliano.it.

    “Relations with my nephew are still excellent. During all these years, we have never been through a crisis.

    “Until he was 17 years old, it was me who decided everything. Then Carlos Costa arrived as manager. Then his father became closer, each having his opinions.

    “And the truth is that every year I had less decision-making, until the day when I will decide on nothing.”

    SCarlos Moya joined the Nadal coaching team at the end of last year.

    Nadal recently lost in the final of the Australian Open to Roger Federer.