Former coach of the senior team of Chelsea Eddie Newton will be interested in handling the senior national team of Nigeria if offered the chance, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are hunting for a new coach for the senior national team following the sacking of Austine Eguavoen led technical crew. So far some names have been shortlisted.
Leading the cast is former coach of the senior national team of Cameroon Antonio Conceicao but Newton who has Nigerian roots will no doubt be interested in the job even though be wasn’t shortlisted or contacted.
Replying to a mail from this portal, a member of his management team said his Nigerian roots will make it almost impossible for him to turn down the chance to handle Nigeria at senior level.
” Many are not aware that he is from Nigeria. But look at his full name Edward John Ikem Newton. That link with Nigeria is enough motivation to want to be a part of the rebuilding process for Nigerian football. He hasn’t been contacted though”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
Per Wikipedia, Newton who played for Chelsea for nine years began his coaching career at MK Dons as an assistant to Roberto Di Matteo. Full citation below.
On 2 July 2008 Newton was appointed assistant manager to Roberto Di Matteo at Milton Keynes Dons. A year later, on 30 June 2009, Di Matteo was appointed head coach of West Bromwich Albion and it was reported that Newton would be joining him at the club as assistant head coach. When Di Matteo was relieved of his duties in January 2011, Newton also left the club.
On 5 March 2012 it was announced that Newton would be joining the back room staff at Chelsea, supporting Roberto Di Matteo.
Di Matteo had just taken over as interim Head Coach at Chelsea following the departure of André Villas-Boas. In his short time as assistant manager at Chelsea he has won the UEFA Champions League and FA Cup. He currently helps to oversee the progress of Chelsea’s loan players after having been assistant first team coach under Guus Hiddink in for the second half of the previous season.
Following the departure of Hiddink, Newton returned to the loan technical coach role until 2019, when he became an assistant coach to the first team following the appointment of Frank Lampard as head coach.
He was appointed assistant manager at Trabzonspor in February 2020.
On 2 August 2020, Newton was appointed by Trabzonspor on a permanent basis, after a successful period as caretaker winning the Turkish Cup. On 31 October 2020, he was sacked as the club’s manager after winning just one of his seven games in charge.