Nigeria Content Online

Heartland will name
a substantive replacement for their former coach Samson Siasia by the
end of January, the team’s General Manager Fan Nduboke has confirmed.

Siasia, who was
formerly contracted to help improve the fortunes of the Naze
Millionaires, was recently appointed as coach of the Super Eagles team,
leading to his exit from the Premier League side – less than six months
after he joined the club.

“We have received
applications from three Brazilian coaches, three Dutch, a Romanian,
three Croatians, an Egyptian as well as a Ghanaian to handle the team,”
the Heartland boss, told MTNFootball.com.

“We also have
interests from coaches in Nigeria, We hope to soon shortlist three,
(or) four of these coaches and by the end of January we will have our
man,” he added.

Currently, former
international striker, Emmanuel Osigwe, is in temporary charge of the
Owerri club following the departure of Siasia to the Super Eagles.

The Heartland boss
said that the club is shopping for a coach who can work with young
players as well as someone who can go on to market the players abroad.

“We want a coach
who has the knack to work with young players and who can open up
business angles for these players overseas. It’s not just about what he
can do on the pitch because we desire a technical partnership as well,”
he said.

“We now have two feeder teams, an Under-14 team and an Under-17 team. We want to sustain our policy of parading young players.”

This season, the
average age of Heartland is around 22 years as they rebuild after
failing to reach the semi-final of this year’s CAF Champions League, a
year after making it to the final only to be beaten by TP Mazembe of DR
Congo.

The Naze Millionaires are currently fifth on the Nigeria Premier League table with 13 points from eight matches.