Former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, has branded the past and present foreign coaches of the senior national teams as ‘mechanics’ The PUNCH reports.

In the last two decades, the Nigeria Football Federation has appointed eight foreign coaches – Clemens Westerhof, Johannes Bonfrere, Philippe Troussier, Bora Milutinovic, Thijs Libregts, Berti Vogts, Lars Lagerback, and Gernot Rohr to lead the team.

Only Westerhof led the team to an Africa Cup of Nations title in 1994, while Bonfrere and Rohr guided the team to a second and third-place finish respectively at the tournament.

The late Stephen Keshi, a Nigerian coach, guided the team to their third AFCON title in 2013, while the late Shuaibu Amodu led the team to a bronze medal finish in 2002 and 2010.

Local coaches, Christian Chukwu and Augustine Eguavoen, also led the team to an AFCON bronze medal finish in 2004 and 2006.

Atlanta 1996 Olympics gold medallist Dosu in an interview on PUNCH Online interview program, Kick&Follow, where top personalities discuss topical issues in Nigerian football, said the local coaches had fared better than their foreign counterparts in the last two decades.

“The best foreign coach the NFF has appointed during my era was Clemens Westerhof and Johannes Bonfrere. After these two, the rest are all mechanics,” Dosu said.

“Let’s talk about the current coach (Gernot Rohr), he has been around for five years but what has he done?

“The late Stephen Keshi was in charge of the team for three years; he won the AFCON and led the team to a round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“They are not better than the local coaches. We are waiting to see when they will win the AFCON with the Eagles.”

The Eagles, who currently lead their 2021 AFCON Group L with eight points, will travel to Porto Novo to face the Benin Republic on match-day five on March 27, before hosting Lesotho three days later at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.