Super Eagles head coach Jose Peseiro has finally opened up on why he took a pay-cut to remain as the coach of the national team npflupdates.com reports.
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Jose Peseiro took a pay-cut last August so he can remain as the Super Eagles head coach going into the 2023 AFCON tournament in Ivory Coast.
While he didn’t reveal his current salary as Super Eagles coach, Peseiro revealed that it was the players of the national team that convinced to take a Pay-cut.
The Portuguese tactician, recently qualified Nigeria for the next edition of the AFCON,where the three-time African champions hope to lift a fourth trophy after lifting one a decade ago.
“The players pushed me to stay because they believe we can win (the AFCON),” he told Sky Sports and was quoted by Dailypost Nigeria.
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Peseiro reveals Nigerians convinced him to take a Pay-cut
“We can win it. The players know it. They come with the same energy, the same belief, to fight for the Super Eagles,” he said.
In a related development, the 63-year-old former Sporting CP gaffer, revealed a standard to which a player must attain before being integrated into the Super Eagles.
According to former Saudi Arabia’s coach, mistakes made in the last international friendlies have been identified and errors corrected.
“After another period of training and matches, with the team and staff united, we have reinforced various aspects and identified mistakes to be corrected,” Peseiro said.
For the standard of players coming to the national team, he said,
“The standard for anyone representing the Super Eagles must always be the highest. The players’ effort was excellent and as a consequence we achieved the victory in a friendly game for the first time in almost 5 years.”
Jose Peseiro also decried his side’s lack of killer instinct, and poor conversion from strikers. According to the former Venezuela coach he had warned his players against conceding up to two goals in a single match.
“Last time, I told them that conceding two goals against any team is bad, but today, we did the same. We created many chances, almost 13 shots, one-on-one situations, but we didn’t utilise them,” he said after the Mozambique friendly last Monday.
Also read: Jose Peseiro : “No killer Instinct” Major Reason We Drew With Saudi Arabia
“We had many opportunities, and for that, I am not happy because we did not put as much concentration as we did against Saudi Arabia. We should have scored up to eight goals. We couldn’t cross well, we didn’t capitalise on our corners. For this, I am sad.”