STEPHEN KESHI FUTURE UNCERTAIN

STEPHEN KESHI

Contrary to earlier reports, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has informed that no deal has been agreed with out-of-contract Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi.

There have been reports suggesting that the football federation has offered Keshi an improved contract reportedly worth N84 million per annum.

According to the reports, Keshi would be handed a new contract for a year starting from January 2015 and would run till December of the same year.

However, while speaking on a monitored sports programme on Radio in Lagos, NFF president Amaju Pinnick played down the reports of a new improved contract has been offered to Keshi

When asked about the new N7 million-a-month deal to Keshi, Pinnick said: “At the moment, we have not come to that yet.”

Meanwhile, Keshi’s representative, Emmanuel Addo, had told supersport.com at the weekend that reports of a new deal to Keshi were “not true.”

“The reports are not true. Where did you pick that from? Let’s wait and see,” Addo stated.

It would be recalled that Keshi has been out of contract since July when the 2014 FIFA World Cup ended in Brazil.

The Big Boss, as he is nicknamed, previously earned N5 million per month during his first reign as Nigeria head coach. But since he failed to qualify the Super Eagles for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, there have been calls for Keshi to be sacked.

Keshi has handled the Eagles without a contract after his initial three-year deal ran out after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

A lingering leadership tussle that dogged Nigeria football in the past four months delayed the coach signing a new deal.

The former coach of Togo and Mali national teams was re-instated as Nigeria’s head coach in October after the NFF executive committee led by Amaju Pinnick had initially replaced him with Shuaibu Amodu.

However, Keshi’s reinstatement could not ensure that the Eagles qualified for the 2015 AFCON to be hosted in Equatorial Guinea after a 2-2 draw against South Africa