The present coach of Athletic Bilbao Ernesto Valverde was the front runner for the Super Eagles job before Jose Peseiro was appointed as coach six months ago, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Valverde impressed during the course of the interview with his rich CV which includes coaching Barcelona putting him atop every other contender for the job. Aside Peseiro, Philip Cocu and former coach of the French team Laurent Blanc.
The NFF later settled for Peseiro who wasn’t the best during the interview due to reasons bothering on the fact that his salary demand was the lowest and also he accepted several terms which Valverde, who came top wasn’t willing to accept.
” Aside his salary which was on the high side. He also wanted to bring a team of six backroom staff and rejected having Nigerian coaches as part of his crew. He also wanted a separate salary for his assistants unlike Peseiro who agreed to pay his foreign assistants from his $50,000 a month pay”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
Valverde went ahead to pick the job of the coach of Bilbao and has since moved on from the Super Eagles job by doing very well with his team in the LaLiga while Nigeria have only won two matches since Peseiro was appointed as coach.
