Exclusive: Samson Siasia Lobbying Top Politicians To Retain Super Eagles Job

Dream Team VI coach Samson Siasia is lobbying top politicians in his bid to retain the Super Eagles job, which is against the wishes of the President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick.

The former Nantes striker has always maintained that he never lost a match during his first spell as the Super Eagles helmsman but didn’t prove he was qualified for the job in the present dispensation, with the national team picking only one point from a possible six against Egypt and failing to qualify for the 2017 African Cup of Nations.

“Siasia has made contact with politicians to help him retain the job, it is the same thing he did when Goodluck Jonathan was the President but I don’t think he’ll succeed this time,” a source at the Nigeria Football Federation told allnigeriasoccer.com.

“Several foreign coaches have applied for the vacant Super Eagles job, including Westerhof and a German but Pinnick is hell-bent on appointing Paul Le Guen and didn’t even bother taking a look at the CVS of other candidates.

“Some top staff at the NFF wanted Siasia to fail when he was appointed interim coach, so they can look for an excuse to appoint a foreigner.”

Against Egypt in Kaduna, history repeated itself with Mohamed Salah scoring in stoppage time to deny Nigeria a win just as was the case in the 2012 AFCON qualifier versus Guinea when Traore netted in added time which knocked the Super Eagles out of the race.

The Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, is not totally against the idea of Pinnick hiring an expatriate coach per se but has told the NFF supremo that he must source for funds to pay the foreigner.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel