NANFeatures/Vol.10/No.256/2016 (Nov. 15)
What qualifies coaches for Best FIFA Coaches’ awards?
A News Analysis by Ijeoma Okigbo, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Choices of all captains and head coaches of national teams around the globe will form a half of voting process for choosing the Best FIFA Men’s Coach 2016 to be presented on Jan. 9, 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland.
The rest half of the process will be split between the result of an online public balloting with football fans and submissions from a selected group of more than 200 media representatives across the world.
The voting for the sport’s most prestigious individual prizes at awards will begin on Nov. 4 and will close on Nov. 22 while the final lists of the three nominees will be announced on Dec. 2.
FIFA had on Nov. 2 announced a list of 10 coaches for the award drawn from clubs and football playing nations under the federation.
Notable shots nominated include Claudio Ranieri, coach of Leicester City of England and Pep Guardiola of Manchester City.
Ranieri was nominated by FIFA’s Football Committee for guiding Leicester City to an historic 2015/2016 Premier League title after the club had narrowly avoided relegation.
Also Pep Guardiola is included after winning a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double with Bayern Munich.
Other nominees are Fernando Santos, who took Portugal to the title; Didier Deschamps, whose France side reached the final; and Chris Coleman, who masterminded the Wales’ run to the semi-finals.
They also include Luis Enrique, who won the World Coach of the Year award in 2015, Zinedine Zidane; nominated for winning the Champions League with Real Madrid; and Diego Simeone, whose Atletico Madrid lost UEFA Euro 2016.
Similarly, Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager and Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino are nominated even though the former lost the EFL Cup and Europa League finals.
Among the nominees, some football fans in Abuja have indicated biggest contenders as Zidane, Ranieri and Santos.
Zidane is currently the manager of Real Madrid, taking over the position in January 2016 when Rafa Benitez was sacked six months after his appointment.
They noted that when Zidane took over, Madrid appeared down and out in La Liga but Zidane had managed to instill a team spirit which had pushed the team forward to win its 11th champions league title in May.
“Zidane, a young coach, who took over from Benitez , even as the club was not too stable at the time , stabilised the ship and won the champions league,’’ Ibrahim Yunusa, a football player, said.
They stressed that Santos took Portugal to the Euro 2016 and won the title for the first time after reaching the finals and losing to Greece in 2004, being the nation’s closest to the title.
Prince Uchenna, a football enthusiast said: “Portugal was not among the beautiful brides for that title, we looked at France, Spain, and England.
“Even though Cristiano Ronaldo was in the team, people felt that he was not fit and he is just one man among 11 players, so no one actually felt that the team will go far in that competition.
“They had started badly in their group, such that Iceland was even ahead of them, yet they won France, in France.’’
They analysed that Leicester, under Ranieri became champions of England by which a sport writer Bonachristus Asomba, applauded his tactics.
“Ranieri defied all odds, he did something that is unimaginable in English Football and this was a team that had an odd chance of winning the English Premier league.
“Leicester was a team that was built to be relegated. In the 2014/2015 season they had struggled to avoid relegation.
“They did the unimaginable, kept clean sheets, won games, even when people felt that fatigue was going to affect them, they still kept on strong and was ahead of the top clubs who had more money.
“ Also, the players in the club were mostly rejects from other clubs such as Jamie Vardy, who was in a non-league club side few years ago, Riyad Mahrez as well as N’golo Kante.
“Even the highest predictor of football will not have predicted winning for the club, so for me Ranieri, did the unthinkable to merit the award,’’ Asomba said.
However, sports analysts have urged sports administrators in the country to prepare coaches enough to compete for the awardss.
Shehu Dikko, a sport enthusiast, charged Nigerian coaches also to constantly improve their capacity at every given opportunity so that they could be relevant in the scheme of sport events.
He said Nigeria Football Federation will continue to do its utmost to provide support to all workers in football who seek to make themselves better professionals in their calling.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)