Former Nigeria international Emmanuel Amuneke has insisted that he is not interested in taking over as coach of the Nigerian national football team at the moment.
The former Super Eagles winger is currently the sporting director of Egyptian Premier League club Misr Lel Makkasa Sporting Club, who are based in the city of Faiyum.
Amuneke has been severally linked with the Super Eagles job in recent times following current handler Gernot Rohr’s inability to reach an agreement on a new deal with the Nigeria Football Federation.
Speaking on Brila FM in Lagos, the 49-year-old insisted that he is not thinking about taking over the reins of the Super Eagles for now and is solely focused on his job with El Makkasa.
“I’m not seeking for Super Eagles job, I have made myself clear, and I don’t need to be repeating myself,’ Amuneke said.
“Nobody knows my life more than God like I said if it is the will of God one day, I will coach the national team.
“You have a coach there in the team, and I have made it very clear, the coach himself has done very well so there’s no need for baseless rumours.
“I have my own challenges that I have to face and see, I hope that post Covid-19 we will be in a position to see if we can reform our team and then get back to the plans we have in mind.”
Although he played only 27 times and scored 9 goals for the Super Eagles, Amuneke is regarded as one of Nigeria’s greatest ever players. He scored two goals in a 2-1 win over Zambia in the final of the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations as the West Africans won their second continental title.
He was also a key member of the team that participated at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States, scoring against Bulgaria and Italy. He also won an Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Although his playing career was badly blighted by injuries, he starred for the likes of Zamalek where he won the Egyptian league twice as well as the 1993 African Cup of Champions, the predecessor of the CAF Champions League. He also played for Sporting Lisbon where he won the Portuguese Cup in 1995 and Barcelona winning the Copa del Rey in 1997.
After moving into management, he became one of only a handful of Nigerian coaches to obtain the much-coveted UEFA Pro License. He led the Nigeria national U17 football team to win a record fifth world title at the FIFA U-17 Cup in 2015.
He spent a year at Sudanese clubside Al Khartoum before taking over as the national team manager of Tanzania, qualifying and leading them to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, their first appearance at the tournament since 1980.
