Super Eagles out-of-contract coach, Stephen Keshi, has said that getting the Eagles’ job is not a do or die affair for him, but said he loves Nigeria and would like to help.Speaking with reporters at the National Stadium, Abuja, after the team’s routine training on Wednesday, the coach said he was not one who would wait around for the Super Eagles job without looking elsewhere. He said…
“Nigeria is not the last team for me to coach.
There are plenty of teams out there. Some are showing interest in me and I thank God. If it is here in my country and if it is not here, no shaking.“See, the most important thing for me in my career right now is to win Sudan; after that, it is up to the NFF or whoever is in charge to decide. My own is: let me win my games on Saturday and from there let us see what happens.
He said he had no long-term agreement yet with the Federation:“I don’t have a game by game contract with the NFF; I don’t know where you heard that. What I’m doing here is simply to help my country out. If I finish qualifying Nigeria and we go to Morrocco, as long as Nigeria qualifies then I will know what’s next. Super Eagles is a team everyone wants to beat. It was like this when I was playing; even when I came in as a coach,” he said.Keshi faced serious criticism after he unveiled his players for the World Cup. His team’s poor performance against Congo and South Africa at the ongoing Afcon qualifiers has not won him more friends, including out-of-favour striker Ikechukwu Uche.
A visibly angry Keshi warned that he will never beg any player to play for the country because during his time he was never begged by any coach to play for the national team.“This will be the last time I will speak about Ike Uche and I will not speak about him again, we are not quarreling. Before the match against Congo, i gave them the list because I never thought I will come back to handle the team. I told them I will not do the list because I am not your coach they say no, so I did the list.“Ike Uche’s name was in the 24-man list. He didn’t even know about it, I did not tell him. Uche called me four days later and I was like ah, we spoke and that was it.
“The next time I told the team secretary to ask the players if they had South African visa and if they don’t have it so that they can get the visa. When Uche was asked, he said why are you asking me, what do you need my passport for? I hate to speak without Uche not being here. You can call him and put it on speaker, if I’m telling lies let him say it.
“Please nobody should ask me about Uche again; Uche said he wants somebody to explain to him why they said he was a bad kid, and if not he is not playing. I said ok take his name out. I am not going to beg Uche, I’m not going to ask Daniel to beg Uche. We all played for this country for twenty something years and nobody begged us to play. We were begging to play.
“So let it be the end today, don’t ask me about Uche. Why not encourage the kids who have come here to play for their country. Why must it be Ike Uche, is it only him, Obafemi is not saying anything, we have hundreds of other players who are not here,” Keshi warned.
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