Former Super Eagles’ captain, Joseph Ikpo Yobo has come out with a confession that he is yet to get a coaching certificate, but says he is already in the process of getting one, as he gets set to commence work as an assistant in the Nigerian national team’s technical crew, megasportsarena.com reports.
While Nigerian football fans and analysts remain critical of the qualification that earned Yobo an appointment by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as second assistant coach to Eagles’ gaffer, Gernot Rohr, ’The Man In The Middle’ says he is on course towards getting formal certification.
Although he equally believes the experience he gained over the years, playing at the highest level for club and country, gave him a good foundation for the tacticians’ trade and put him on the right track to be a successful coach, Yobo admitted he still has to get formal qualifications.
He assured that he will be able to ring to bear on his role as Eagles’ assistant coach experience he gained as captain of the side, in which he mingled with team officials and administrators in the football governing body, while also having picked crucial tips from gaffer he worked with at club level, from Dolphins of Port Harcourt, Standard Liege of Belgium, Olympique Marseille of France, Everton and Norwich City of England as well as Fernebahce of Turkey.
Yobo told Nigeria Info FM: “One thing people don’t understand my time as the captain, a lot of things that happened behind the scenes players don’t want to talk about because they’ll be a scapegoat. We have somebody else, Gernot Rohr, he’s the tactician, he’s the head coach.
“I am assisting him in things that maybe he might not see, I’m working under him, I’m not the head coach. (My coaching certificate is) in progress, everything is going to come through, if not for this pandemic as well. But like I said this is a topic that we can talk about for days.
“I bring in my experience, I am going to bring in belief, I am going to be an interface between the players. One thing I like is I’m a practical kind of person, I have said that even talking about the local players, put me against somebody and watch what happens, not that I am proud of what I think I can do but I always let my work speak for me.”
