“We should look inward” – Ex-Super Eagles striker tells NFF to hire another home-based coach to replace Finidi George

Former Super Eagles and Wigan Athletic striker, Julius Efosa Aghahowa, has urged the Nigeria Football Federation to appoint a local coach to replace Finidi George, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 42-year-old striker featured 32 times for the Super Eagles of Nigeria, scoring 14 goals in a career that spanned across seven years. He also played for several European clubs like Bendel Insurance, Esperance, Shakhtar Donetsk, Wigan Athletic, Kayserispor and FK Sevastopol.

Quizzed about Finidi George’s resignation from his role as the Super Eagles coach, Aghahowa revealed the NFF are keen on keeping a foreigner in the coaching mix.

“I think it’s what they want. So they will usually go for what they want, irrespective of what people will see or people’s opinions will be, but I feel we have gone past that. Right now, we should be looking inward. First of all, we don’t have money to pay foreign coaches right now. I remember how they struggled in the past,” the former Bendel Insurance striker told Brila.

Additionally, the ex-Super Eagles forward revealed the Nigerian Football Federation should put their trust in a local coach, to grow our football from the inside out.

“We should look inward and allow our homegrown coaches to coach the national team, but in the long term, if you look at the national team in the couple past of years, we don’t have the homegrown players included in the call-up. So, I feel that if we have our homegrown coaches, that should be an opportunity for the homegrown players to be invited to the national team, so we can make our league stronger,” the 42-year-old concluded.

In 20 English Premier League games with Wigan Athletic, Aghahowa was unable to score a goal, despite playing 750 minutes of football.