Augustine Owen Eguavoen (born 19 August 1965) is a Nigerian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

manager and former player who thrice served as manager of the Nigeria national team.

Playing career

Club

During his varied career Eguavoen began his career with ACB Lagos in his native

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, some impressive performances gained him a move to Gent in 1986. He went on to play for

K.V. Kortrijk Koninklijke Voetbalclub Kortrijk (often simply called KV Kortrijk or KVK) is a Belgian professional football club based in Kortrijk, West Flanders. They play in the Belgian First Division, and they achieved their best ranking ever during the 200 ...

CD Ourense Club Deportivo Ourense, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Ourense, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded in 1952 after the dissolution of old UD Orensana, it played in Segunda División B – Group 1, holding home games at ...

, Sacramento Scorpions, Torpedo Moscow and finished his career in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

with

Sliema Wanderers Sliema Wanderers Football Club, nicknamed "tax-Xelin" ( of the shilling), is a professional Maltese football club. It is the most successful team in Malta and hails from the seaside town of Sliema. It currently plays in the Maltese Premier Leag ...

International

Eguavoen was a member of the Nigeria national team squad that qualified for the country's first ever World Cup in 1994, and won the

African Nations Cup The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

in the same year.

Coaching career

Sliema Wanderers

Eguavoen began his coaching career in

with

, he was given the job for the 2000–01 season, and guided the club to a second-place finish.

Nigeria

Eguavoen was appointed the caretaker coach of the Nigeria national team in June 2005 with his coaching staff including Samson Siasia,

Daniel Amokachi Daniel Owefin Amokachi (born 30 December 1972) is a Nigerian football manager and former professional footballer and a member of the dubious goals panel for the Premier League. As a player he was a forward who notably played in the Premier L ...

and

Ike Shorunmu Ike Ibrahim Shorunmu (born 16 October 1967) is a former Nigerian football goalkeeper. Career Shorunmu was born in Lagos. After a few years in Nigeria he moved to play in Switzerland, and made his mark there. He was bought by Turkish club B ...

. He managed the Nigeria national team at the

2006 Africa Cup of Nations The 2006 Africa Cup of Nations was the 25th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa. It was hosted by Egypt. Just like in 2004, the field of sixteen teams was split into four groups of four. Egypt won ...

in Egypt, where the team won a bronze medal, beating Senegal in the third-place play-off. He was sacked in April 2006.

Black Leopards

Eguavoen then moved to South Africa, to take over Premier Soccer League side

Black Leopards Black Leopards FC is a South African football club based in Thohoyandou, Vhembe Region, Limpopo that plays in the National First Division. History The club was founded in 1983 by business people in the Vhembe Region. In 1998 the club was ta ...

in March 2008.

Enyimba International

In the 2008–09 season, Eguavoen was head coach at Enyimba International in Aba, however he left soon after, leading them to a 3rd-place finish in league and winning the Federation Cup.

Return to Nigeria

In June 2010, the Nigeria Football Federation asked Eguavoen to replace Swedish

Lars Lagerbäck Lars Edvin "Lasse" Lagerbäck (; born 16 July 1948) is a Swedish football manager and former player, who is the technical director of the Iceland national football team. Lagerbäck has managed a number of national teams prior to his current pos ...

until he decide his future plans. He was brought in as caretaker manager but said that he has no intention of submitting an application to take the role on a permanent basis. Eguavoen was also appointed as the head coach of the

Nigeria national under-23 football team Nigeria Olympic football team represents Nigeria in international football competitions in Olympic Games. The selection is limited to male players under the age of 23, except during the Olympic Games where the use of three overage players is allo ...

in August 2010. He expected his team would have a qualification for the 2012 London Olympic Games, but they were knocked out in the group stage. On 5 December 2011, he resigned from his job following the failure to secure the Olympics ticket. On 27 October 2012, he was named manager of Sharks F.C. to allow

John Obuh John Sam Obuh is a Nigerian football manager. He was most recently the coach of Akwa United F.C. He was in charge of Nigeria's under-17 national team during the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup after leaving Kwara United due to a payment dispute. On 2 ...

to concentrate on the Nigeria Under-20 team. He resigned however after seven games when the team started at the bottom of the table. He signed in April 2013 to coach

Nigeria National League The Nigerian National League (formerly known as ''National Division 1'') is the second tier of club football in Nigeria. History From 1997-2011, the league has been split into 1A for Northern teams and 1B for southern teams. The top two f ...

side COD United. In November 2013, he was hired by the Edo State government to coach Bendel Insurance with the intent of getting them back to the Premier League. He resigned in July 2014 to take over

Gombe United F.C. Gombe United Football Club is a Nigerian football club based in Gombe. They play in the Nigeria Professional Football League. Their home stadium is the new Pantami Stadium, having moved from Abubakar Umar Memorial Stadium in 2010. History The ...

In April 2017, he joined Sunshine Stars. but was let go in June after a home loss to league leaders

Plateau United Plateau United Football Club of Jos (usually known as Plateau United) is a Nigerian professional football (soccer) club based in Jos, that competes in the Nigerian Professional Football League. Before 1991, they were known as the JIB Strikers F ...

. In October 2020, the Nigerian Football Federation, appointed Eguavoen as the Technical Director of the Federation. On 12 December 2021, Eguavoen was appointed manager of Nigeria on an interim basis for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, following the departure of Gernot Rohr. After Nigeria exited from the round of sixteen with an agonising defeat to

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, he returned to his position as the Technical Director of the side.

Honours

As a Player

Nigeria *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

(Winner)

As a Coach

Nigeria *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

(Bronze) Enyimba International * Federation Cup 2008/09 Season (Winner)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eguavoen, Augustine 1965 births Living people Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Nigerian footballers Association football defenders Nigeria international footballers Olympic footballers of Nigeria Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 King Fahd Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1988 African Cup of Nations players 1992 African Cup of Nations players 1994 African Cup of Nations players Belgian First Division A players Belgian First Division B players Liga Portugal 2 players USISL players Russian Premier League players ACB Lagos F.C. players K.A.A. Gent players K.V. Kortrijk players CD Ourense footballers Sacramento Scorpions players FC Torpedo Moscow players FC Torpedo-2 players Sliema Wanderers F.C. players Nigerian football managers 2006 Africa Cup of Nations managers Bendel Insurance F.C. managers Nigeria national football team managers Black Leopards F.C. managers Enyimba F.C. managers Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Russia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Malta Expatriate footballers in Malta Sportspeople from Delta State