Eguavoen ‘fired up’ to prove critics wrong

After an initial reluctance, Augustine Eguavoen is now “really fired up” to make the most of his temporary charge of the Super Eagles and prove critics wrong.

The NFF technical director Thursday got a massive vote of confidence from his employers the NFF to carry on after he got the Super Eagles off to a decent start in 2025 AFCON qualifying series.

‘Cerezo’ was not exactly keen on a fourth return, but his bosses made it very clear they needed him to come on board and save their faces particularly after the German Bruno Labbadia walked out on the position.

The former Super Eagles captain made it clear in his early interviews as caretaker boss that he did not push for the job.

A dominant 3-0 home win over Benin followed by an unlucky goalless draw in Rwanda have given Eguavoen a good head start.

Sources close to the former Gent star have now told SCORENigeria that he is “motivated” to redeem himself after the fiasco at the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon that was followed son after by the failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.

“He is very motivated now,” a source said.

“He now sees this as a great opportunity to redeem his image after two major back-to-back failures under his watch.”

He has got the dressing room on his side and that was evident by the whole-hearted performances by the team earlier this month.

However, what is not clear is how much support he will get from his bosses when things go rough again.

He was cast away by the NFF, like a bad rash, when Nigeria lost the World Cup ticket to arch-rivals Ghana.

SCORENigeria learnt that he has got an apology from his employers for this shabby treatment.

Hopefully, this forthcoming double-header against bottom team Libya will go to form and the romance between the coach and his bosses will continue.