Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is yet to formalise the disengagement of coach Gernot Rohr amid unconfirmed report that the Amaju Pinnick –led board have settled for a ‘failed’ former Serbia coach.
Mladen Krstajic as the German successor, NationSport can report exclusively.
Though it was gathered that sacking Rohr was already a fait accompli in the wake of last week’s listless 1-1 home draw against Cape Verde in the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifier at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
Sources close to Rohr informed last night that the NFF have yet to serve the former Bundesliga defender any ‘written document’ with words rife that the NFF must cough about $600,000 USD in severance package with the German.
“ As we speak, Rohr is still waiting for a written document from the NFF,” a source close to the German coach told NationSport. “ Until this is done, you can’t be talking about sacking the German after all, NFF still has some outstanding obligations to him.”
Further checks at the NFF confirmed that the head eggs at the NFF are still brainstorming and working on the finer details of their proposals before announcing a formal disengagement of the German who led Nigeria to both the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 Africa Cup of nations.
“ As far as I know, the NFF board has reached an agreement on Rohr and are now working the finer details,” an official who pleaded anonymity told NationSport.
Meanwhile, the social media was bursting at the seam last night that NFF may announce former Serbia coach Krstajic as a replacement for Rohr.
Further checks revealed that the NFF President Pinnick would this week lead a delegation to London to meet the representatives of the 47-year-old Krstajic, who guided Serbia to the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Krstajic is a former Serbian international who played as a centre-back and represented Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In October 2017, he succeeded Slavoljub Muslin as head coach of the Serbia national team, initially as a caretaker and led the Eastern European country to Russia 2018 where they crashed out in the first round.
Meanwhile, Krstajic was sacked as Serbia manager in 2019 after a dismal 5–0 loss in a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier against Ukraine. He last coached Serbian professional football club TSC albeit without success and has been out of job since last month.
Leave a Reply