The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Rohr

  • Rohr hits Nigeria next week

    Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser Gernot Rohr will arrive in Abuja next week to commence preparations for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match away to Seychelles on September 7.

    The Franco-German tactician has not been in Nigeria since the Eagles participated in the Russia 2018 World Cup and has been actively involved in FIFA organized seminars and meetings.

    He has now confirmed that he would be in Nigeria next week and would likely release his team list for the Seychelles match next Friday.

    Rohr disclosed that he has been travelling around Europe to monitor young Nigerian players doing well for their various clubs during the pre-season and the league proper.

    He also told NationSport that he would be in France this weekend to watch enterprising 20 year old winger  Samuel Kalu playing his first match for his new club Bordeaux after joining the club from Gent of Belgium.

    Former Gent of Belgium winger Samuel Kalu recently joined Bordeaux of France to replace Malcolm who moved to Barcelona.

    “I will be in Nigeria next week. We will announce our list for Seychelles when I arrive. This week end I will watch the first appearance of (Samuel) Kalu with Bordeaux,” Rohr noted.

  • Rohr vows to help Ikeme

    Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser Gernot Rohr has thrown his weight behind recently retired Eagles’ goalkeeper Carl Ikeme to become not only a goalkeeper’s coach but a general coach.

    The recuperating Eagles’ former number one goalkeeper, a few days ago announced his retirement from active football due to his illness. He was diagnosed by doctors to have leukaemia and just recovered from the sickness.

    The General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) disclosed at a press briefing on Sunday, that the Federation had concluded plans to absorb Ikeme as a coaching staff and by that, to help him train as a coach.

    Rohr, however, has also confirmed his readiness to help his former number one goal-tender become a complete football coach.

    “I spoke with Carl about the possibility to become a coach and proposed to help him. Most important is that the sickness is over. He is 30 and can prepare for diplomas in good coaching schools”, Rohr told NationSport from Germany where he is attending an international coaching meeting yesterday.

    Rohr also explained that “when Carl called me two weeks ago, he was sad. But our proposal to help him become a coach with the Eagles’ team is now giving him new hope. Besides this proposal, he would also learn to become a general coach. A goalkeeper coach has to do a lot of physical efforts such as shooting a lot”, Rohr disclosed.

  • Rohr, Amuneke hit Morocco

    Eagles coach Gernot Rohr and member of the FIFA Study Group for the 2018 World Cup Emmanuel Amuneke will be in Rabat, Morocco, from tomorrow for a CAF World Cup workshop over the weekend. All five African teams at Russia 2018 failed to go past the group stage.

    Amuneke told SCORENigeria: “I will be attending a conference starting from tomorrow mainly to discuss the five representatives of Africa to the World Cup and the way forward for African football.

    “I believe there is still room for Africa to hit it big in world football, we just have to get the basics right which is right attitude and mentality to work. The talent is there already and so we can push to the next level.”

    Eagles coach Rohr is expected to submit his World Cup report in Rabat.

  • Mikel ready to play in any position — Rohr

    Super Eagles’ Captain, John Mikel Obi at a press conference in Essentukiia yesterday, said that he was ready to play in any position his Head Coach Gernot Rohr drafts him to play from, in the make or mar second match of group D against Argentina in the ongoing Russia 2018 World Cup.

    He sounded confident as regards playing as both offensive midfielder and defensive midfielder, which his former Coach at Chelsea José Mourinho preferred him to operate for the Eagles like he did  while playing under him at Chelsea.

    “I have worked with Mourinho for a long time and he knows me very well.

    ” I have played in this advanced role for close to two years now and people never complained until we lost this game.

    “I understand the feelings of everyone because of the result and how we played.

    Personally, I am ready to play anywhere the coach wants me to play.

    ” I am comfortable with any of the roles, whether in a more offensive or defensive role. The most important thing is the team.

    The Eagles’ Captain is confident ahead of the showdown against Iceland, as he confessed that he would like his team to stay long in the competition.

    “I have not given up hope inspite of the disappointment of that loss.

    We are training hard to make it out of the group.

    Hopefully things will work out for us on Friday.

    “We have enjoyed Russia so far. We have been able to work and train well. The training facilities, hotel and the people have been great.

    We hope to qualify and stay longer here so we can get to know more places in Russia”, he disclosed.

  • Eagles mentally, physically ready, says Rohr

    The Super Eagles are in a good mental and physical shape for tomorrow’s match against Croatia, Coach Gernot Rohr said yesterday as World Cup Russia 2018 got underway.

    After a short opening ceremony, hosts Russia hammered Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the opening match.

    Nigeria’s match against Croatia tomorrow in one of the two Group D clashes, as Argentina and Iceland play the other game.

    “We are looking forward to the match with a lot of optimism. It will be a tough one, but we are physically and mentally ready. We had quality preparatory matches and trained twice at our final camp in Austria, and since arriving in Essentuki, we have done some useful tactical preparation.

    “It is important to start well in a good tournament like this, and that is what we hope to do on on Saturday,” Rohr said.

    Croatia star player Andrej Kramaric described tomorrow’s match as the toughest for his side.

    The 26-year-old Croatian said  “I think it is Nigeria.  Against Nigeria we play the first, and for us the most important game. That game will open or close the door of the World Cup for us. Therefore, we need to apply our full concentration.”

    He added: “This is a great generation. Our motivation is at a high level. We want to get to the knockout stage, and with some luck we can achieve a great result.”

    Both teams are meeting for the first time at the World Cup. The Croatians will rely on the likes of Real Madrid’s Luka Modric, Mario Mandzukic of Juventus, Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic and Ivan Rakitic of Barcelona.

    The Nigerian team is largely made up of young players, about 17 of them making their first World appearances.

    The Eagles can also rely on the experience of skipper Mikel Obi, Victor Moses, Ahmed Musa and Odion Ighalo.

    Obi, who is also looking forward to a good game, said: “It is the dream of every footballer to play at the FIFA World Cup and we have to live that dream on Saturday (tomorrow). Croatia is a very good team with a lot of top class players and we have to be at our very best against them.

    “This group is probably the toughest in the tournament; everyone is calling it the ‘group of death’. That is the motivation. We have given ourselves the target of coming out of this group just like we did in the African qualifying group that everyone gave the same tag.

    “As our coach has said, we worked hard at both the camp in Austria and since we got to the team base camp in Essentuki. Our Football Federation also did well to get us to prepare in very good places devoid of distraction and now, it is our responsibility to do the nation proud by starting well against Croatia.”

    Tomorrow will mark Nigeria’s sixth appearance at the FIFA World Cup finals, in seven tournaments since their first appearance at the 1994 finals in the USA.

    The only time Nigeria has missed football’s biggest showpiece in the last quarter –century was in 2006, when a head-to-head rule knocked out the Eagles despite finishing on equal points with Angola.

    Yesterday’s opening match at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, watched by a crowd of 78,011, gave the crowd a lot to cheer with goals from  Denis Cheryshev (who got a brace), Artem Dzyuba, Iury Gazinsky and Aleksander Golovin scored the goals.

    The opening ceremony was led by British pop star Robbie Williams and Russian soprano Aida Garifullina in a 15-minute period.

    Part of the ceremony was the entrance of former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas and Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova with the World Cup trophy in a Louis Vuitton travel case.

    Williams later performed two hits — “Let Me Entertain You” and “Rock DJ” — alongside some dancers and freestylers.

    He was thereafter joined in a duet by Garifullina, a soloist from the Vienna State Opera, to sing one of his (Williams) hit songs “Angels”.

    Three matches will be played today

     

  • Rohr denies tagging journalists as being corrupt

    The Nigeria Football Federation would like to clarify a claim making the rounds about senior national team head coach Gernot Rohr where it is claimed that he launched an attack on the members of the media profession in Nigeria.

    We have stepped in to this matter immediately and can assure the general public and members of the media that Mr Rohr has been quoted out of context.

    The Super Eagles handler stated to us categorically that he never said all journalists were corrupt. He sent us a transcript of the interview he granted and nowhere in it was the word ‘corrupt’ used.

    He did admit to stating that people who acted as agents put pressure on his crew on who to pick in the World Cup squad and also that the pages of the papers were awash with claims and counter claims but never did he state that the media had no right or that they were corrupt in their approach.

    Gernot Rohr is in the middle of preparing for a big assignment – negotiating the World Cup in Russia (otherwise he would have responded personally) – and all we can enjoin Nigerians to do is get behind him and our Super Eagles team in seeing that we reach appreciable heights in this forthcoming World Cup tournament.

    For almost two years now, Rohr has built a wonderful relationship with Nigeria – his players, his employers and we are sure that he is on amiable terms with the media.

    We would like to encourage this camaraderie and try not to allow misquotes and wrongly perceived comments to derail what the federation is trying to achieve with him for our football.

    The President of the NFF, Amaju Melvin Pinnick has added his voice, stating that ‘We believe in our media and we believe in the quality of what they do for our football. And having personally spoken repeatedly to Gernot Rohr, he has convinced us that he is on the same page with us on this drive’.

  • Eagles won’t lose to Croatia – Rohr

    Super Eagles Manager, Gernot Rohr is confident that Nigeria will not lose its opening game against Croatia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup despite its 2-1 loss to England in a friendly at Wembley Stadium.

    The three-time African champions have lost twice in their last three warm-up matches.

    According to the German tactician, the one-time World Cup semifinalist are beatable.

    His words, “They are beatable. It is important that we take our first game 100% serious and secure the maximum three points. We have our game plan for each match and we will stick to it and take the group games as it comes.”

    Meanwhile, Croatia were beaten 2-1 by  Brazil at the Anfied stadium on Sunday afternoon in a friendly.

    Neymar and Roberto Firmino scored for Brazil.

  • Eagles have bright future says, Rohr

    Super Eagles tactician Gernot Rohr, was left elated and stated that the Super Eagles have a ‘’bright future’’ in the aftermath of the international friendly between Nigeria’s B team and Atletico Madrid.

    Super Eagles Head Coach Salisu Yusuf, named a blend of home and foreign-based players in Tuesday friendly at the Godwin Akpabio stadium.

    Though, the newly crowned Europa League kings defeated the young Nigerian side 3-2 in a thrilling, sensational and blockbuster encounter that saw Kelechi Nwakali and Usman Mohammed netting in two spectacular goals.

    Rohr stated that several names on the pitch could transit to the first team after a show of class and quality against one of La Liga great team with the best defence in the world.

    ‘’the Super Eagle has a bright future after what I’ve seen today,’’ the German-born Coach said.

    Meanwhile, NFF Technical committee bigwig, Mutiu Adepoju has stated exclusively that the friendly was a ‘’great exposure’’ for the Nigeria Professional League (NPFL) players.

    Adepoju, popularly called The Head Master due to his great scoring ability with the head, opined that the players have shown great character and strength, and if they are to continue with this momentum they would be in the main team sooner than later.

  • Rohr submit provisional list on Monday

    Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser Gernot Rohr has said that he will submit his 30-man provisional list to World footballing governing, body FIFA on Monday, while hinting that the same players may prosecute the Eagles friendlies against Democratic Republic of Congo on May 28 and England on June 2.

    The Franco-German football tactician is also expected to name new players in the team that will battle DR Congo and England.

    But he told NationSport from his base in France that, “I am going to announce the list of 30 players that will play against DR Congo on May 28 in Port Harcourt and on June 2 against England.”

    He also assured that Super Eagles fans and Nigerians won’t be disappointed with the choice of players he has invited to prosecute the two matches.

    “Nigerians will be happy with the players that we have invited for the matches. I can also assure you that they will give their best against DR Congo and England”, Rohr stated.

    The coach also praised Leicester City’s forward Kelechi Iheanacho for his Man of The Match performance in Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat of Arsenal in the Week 37 of the English Premier League.

    “I am happy about the good form of Kelechi. He really played well against Arsenal. That’s the kind of form we expect from our players before the World Cup.

    He also said that he would wait for the outcome of this weekend’s matches across Europe before finally submitting his provisional list to FIFA.

    “I am also waiting for the next round of matches before submitting my list to FIFA on Monday,” Rohr disclosed.

  • Nigeria will win 2019 AFCON – Rohr

    Super Eagles’ head coach, Gernot Rohr has predicted that Nigeria can win the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations based on its FIFA ranking.

    Rohr, who was a guest on Supersports Monday Night of Football, spoke on several issues on the team ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

    The coach confirmed he would be with the team after the World Cup following the renewal of his contract for the next two years.

    “We are presently sixth, which means that we are among the tournament favourites. So that is my target,” he told the panel of analysts.

    When the coach was asked what Nigerians should expect from the team at the Mundial, he said

    “We will do our best in Russia. I love the solidarity and fighting spirit of the team. This is a team that will play for Nigeria and Carl Ikeme our keeper, who is recovering from acute leukemia, will take the kick-off against England at Wembley on June 2,” he said.

    Nigeria last won the title in 2013 under late Stephen Keshi.