Gernot Rohr, Nigeria Super Eagles’ coach, is not thinking of resigning after failing to take the team beyond the group stage in the FIFA World Cup tournament in Russia.
Rohr dismissed the possibility of quitting while reacting to a question by South Africa’s sports journalist, David Kappel who writes for Soccer Laduma.
According to Sports Village Square, the journalist had asked: “It sounds like you are still positive despite the World Cup exit. Did the thought of resigning ever cross your mind?’”
Possibly the question arose following a trend in Nigerian football after each World Cup outing. In the previous five World Cup outings, all the coaches, except Stephen Keshi, left the team after the match.
Sports Village Square recalls that even Keshi spoke about his resignation at the post match press conference in Brasilia after the Super Eagles were ousted by France four years ago.
Even though he continued for sometime, it was obvious he was merely marking time before he was finally axed.
Rohr told Soccer Laduma that resignation was out of point. “When you have a team playing this good, beating Iceland who are number 20 in the world while we are number 49; a team that had Argentina, number six in the world close to a knockout; who would think of resigning from this team?
“You will need to question your own work. No, it is out of question for me right now.”
The 65 year-old German was appointed manager of the Nigerian team in August 2016.
Before then, he had coached Niger, Burkina Faso and Gabon teams and also Etoile Sportive du sahel, at the club level in 2009.
His first coaching experience with Africa’s national teams was in 2010, when he was appointed in February of that year as successor to French coach Alain Giresse . He was then manager of Ligue 2 team FC Nantes, the job he got after he was sacked by Etoile. He did not stay long in FC Nantes as he was fired in December of 2009.
He became manager of Niger national football team in September 2012, but resigned in October 2014.
On 22 December 2015, he was sacked by Burkina Faso national football team as manager.
Before coming to Africa, Rohr in 1996, managed Girondins Bordeaux to the UEFA Cup final, where they lost to Bayern Munich over two legs, 0–2 away and 1–3 at home. Bordeaux’s run to the final included a famous 3–0 win over AC Milan in the quarter-finals. From October 1998 until April 1999 he was sports director of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Rohr registered the distinction making the Super Eagles the first African team to qualify on 7 October 2017, for the 2018 FIFA World Cup after a 1–0 victory over Zambia.
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