Former captain of the senior national team of Nigeria Joseph Yobo has voiced his unhappiness on the manner he was axed from the coaching crew of the senior national team of Nigeria after their failure to secure the ticket to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Yobo was part of the coaching crew led by Austine Eguavoen that failed to make it to the tournament in Qatar after failing to beat Ghana in the playoff. The unfortunate incident led to the dismissal of the crew.
He feels he was unfairly treated, because he was inherited from the former technical crew led by Gernot Rohr with a clear plan to be the next Super Eagles coach, when he was appointed.
He started by detailing how he went into coaching despite not initially opened to the idea. ” My case is peculiar. Initially, I never wanted to become a manager. When I was called to do it (become an assistant) I was a bit skeptical but I saw it as a chance to learn the trade. My appointment came during Covid and I hadn’t gotten my badges yet and not even a Nigerian coaching course could have been arranged at the time because of the situation globally”, he told the print edition of Guardian.
“My role was a bit different under Gernot Rohr and Eguavoen. One thing I observed even as a player was some managers forget they used to be players before which is something I was able to do differently by relating more with the boys being a former player myself.
” I won’t lie to you I loved it (coaching the national team). Ask the players. The coaches that were there and anyone who knows me know that whatever I’m involved in, I do it with passion, but we didn’t qualify (for the 2022 World Cup). Rather than review and look to the future, they let go of everybody”, he stated.
Speaking on the failure to qualify for the world cup owing to the loss to Ghana , he explained he still found it hard to believe they didn’t score away to Ghana, which proved fatal.
“Whatever transpired in the away game against Ghana, I thought we should have won that game. I knew I had a big role to play being a former captain by talking to the players on what to expect from this type of situation but in football, goals decide games and we couldn’t score in Ghana and they eventually qualified on away goals here in Abuja. I wanted to be part of the experience (the World Cup) from the sidelines after experiencing it first hand as a player.
” The NFF at that time made a decision to drop all the coaching crew, forgetting that I was brought in as a project for the future. In doing so, they deviated from the purpose and I moved on to other things. When I saw a window of opportunity (to get my license) during that time frame, I took it with the PFA which I paid for in full and still have receipts for it but still ended up getting dropped from the crew”, he lamented.
