Former captain of the senior national team of Nigeria John Obi Mikel has backed Austine Eguavoen to continue as the substantive coach of the Nigerian team following the expiration of his two games mandate as interim coach, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Eguavoen was handed the role of handling the Super Eagles in the AFCON qualifiers games against Benin Republic and Rwanda respectively, games which the team picked up four points from a possible six following a 3-0 win over Benin and a 0-0 draw away to Rwanda.
The role was handed to him following breakdown in talks with German coach Bruno Labbadia who was announced as the coach of the team by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). A disagreement over payment of his taxes opened the door for Eguavoen to take over as interim coach in what was his fourth spell as coach.
Mikel who had his international breakthrough playing under Eguavoen in 2003 at U17 says he saw similarities with the Real Madrid coach and Eguavoen, when he worked under the Italian at Chelsea for two seasons.
He made this known in the latest edition of his podcast Obione, where he talked about the senior national team of Nigeria, and The need for the coach who gave him his senior international cap in 2006 to remain as the substantive coach of the team.
