NFF insider Ikpeba confirms three ex-Barcelona stars, Peseiro made final shortlist for Eagles job

Nigeria Football Federation Technical Committee member Victor Ikpeba has confirmed that three former Barcelona players Laurent Blanc, Phillip Cocu and Ernesto Valverde, and ex-Porto boss José Peseiro applied for the vacant Super Eagles job.

The Technical Committee trimmed a seven-man shortlist of coaching candidates to four and have passed on their recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation to make the call.

Portuguese football tactician Jose Peseiro is reportedly the frontrunner to replace Gernot Rohr as the permanent Nigeria boss even though he is not in the same bracket as the former Barcelona players.

"We have about six, seven foreign managers that applied, the names are all out but some of them were not mentioned," Ikpeba said to Channels TV Sunday Sports.

"We looked at the profiles and we decided three, four of the foreign managers we take it to the Executive Committee of the NFF Board to decide.

"Ernesto Valverde, Laurent Blanc, Phillip Cocu and José Peseiro applied for the Super Eagles job and based on their profile they were shortlisted."

Ikpeba went on to highlight the pedigree of the four foreign coaches that made the final shortlist for the Nigeria job.

"When you look at the experience of Laurent Blanc, he is a World cup winner, he has coached PSG, France.

"Cocu has coached in PSV, ex-international with the Netherlands and Valverde that coached Barcelona before and Peseiro that we wanted to take as our manager before the Nations Cup.

"It's now for the NFF to decide who they want."

Ikpeba has also confirmed that no Nigeria manager, including Emmanuel Amuneke applied to coach the Super Eagles.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel