confirmed his willingness to relinquish the Nigeria job in
favour of Burkina Faso coaching position.
Keshi, who has yet to agree with the Nigeria Football
Federation on a new deal, told a Burkina Faso medium,
Sidwaya.bf, that he was willing to help the national team,
Stallions, qualify for the World Cup and the 2017 Africa Cup of
Nations.
The former Nigeria captain tops a three-man shortlist which
includes ex-Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac and ex-Gabon and
Niger coach Gernot Rohr. Whoever is eventually selected the
Burkina Faso Football Federation will replace Paul Put, who
was fired at the end of a disappointing 2015 AFCON campaign
in Equatorial Guinea.
When asked why he wanted the Burkina Faso job, he replied,
“(The team) is a high potential individual team, technical and
combative. The team’s (Stallions) path to the final at the
2013 AFCON attests to (these qualities). They regularly
participate in the in continental football.
“Burkina Faso is deemed a serious country in terms of project
management. The country has a positive image in African
football landscape. They are also willing to sit down for a
short project, medium and long term.
“I will also help (Burkina Faso) in qualifying for the Olympics.
Then I can reveal to the entire continent the potential of
Burkinabe football.
“My ambitions remain the same from one national team to
another. I don’t want to have the job just to have the job but
to bring a real plus.
“If I am chosen, by the grace of God, I first want to qualify
Burkina Faso for the 2017 AFCON finals and why not for the
next World Cup as I did with Togo.
“And then I want to do what it takes to go as far as possible
in those competitions. Everything is possible.”
He added: “There is no success without vision, without hard
work and without confidence. If all those things are in place, I
insist that the Stallions can compete with the best in Africa.
“If I get the job, my objective is to transmit this desire of
giving it all for their country, this winning culture, to follow
the local players and instil a healthy competition between
them like I did in Nigeria with youngsters like Sunday Mba
and other local players who went on to be African champions
in 2013.
“As head coach of Nigeria, I played the 2013 AFCON final
against these Stallions and I was very pleased with them.”
However, Keshi made it clear Burkina Faso are not the only
team he is considering.
meanwhile, We have confirmed that Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi
will not receive as much pay as he got during his first tenure
as the Super Eagles coach.
We learnt on authority on Tuesday that the
new contract being offered him by the Nigeria Football
Federation has his salary as N4m per month as against the
N5m he was paid by the previous administration.
An official of the federation who asked not to be quoted
because he was not authorised to speak on the issue said the
current economic situation in the country was put into
consideration in arriving at the salary for the former Eagles
captain.
He said, “What has been done is just a simple adjustment of
the pay to fit into the reality of our time. The football system
is not different in any way from the general economy of the
country.
“We are all aware that the world oil market has tumbled down
and this is not peculiar to Nigeria. And so as other countries
adjust we too will have to cut budget to reality. Would it
make any sense to say N10m and not be able to even pay
N1m at the end of the month? We are being realistic and we
believe that he understands.”
The other argument put forward by some other members is
that the coach will not be as busy as he was during the last
tenure with one major tournament already gone during the
negotiation as Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup
of Nations which held in Equatorial Guinea with Keshi in
charge.
It was gathered that Keshi’s manager had pressed for N7m
which the NFF officials said they could not afford.
Apart from the cut in salary, the coach has also been offered
a two-year deal which will terminate in 2017. And as exclusively reported last week, Keshi’s new contract
also demands that he gets to at least the semi final stage of
the 2017 Africa Nations Cup before any further extension can
be discussed.
The NFF president was widely quoted on Tuesday by some
online portals as saying that the federation expects to receive
the response to the offer from Keshi this week. The coach is
also in the running for Burkina Faso job against others.
Keshi’s first term with the NFF ended with the 2014 World
Cup in Brazil. Since then the issue of contract negotiation has
been dragging. The NFF board had asked him to go but had
to return him to the Eagles’ bench after pressures from the
Presidency to retain him.