Berti Vogts
This guy you see in this picture is the new Technical Adviser of Nigeria's Super Eagles. His name is Berti Vogts and he has officially resumed work with the team. But what do we know about this guy? Is he qualified for this job? Why did the Nigerian Football Association go after him? I went searching to know more about him and here is what I found out. It's quite enlightening!
. Berti was born 30 December 1946 in Büttgen, Germany.
. He is a former German international football player and manager.
. Vogts played 9 international boys' games for West Germany, made 3 appearances for the under-23s team, and has 96 senior caps, making him one of Germany's most capped players. He was captain for 20 of the senior games, scored one international goal and was also a member of the German national team that won the 1974 World Cup
. Starting in 1986, he became an assistant manager of the senior national side.
. He was a coach for Germany's under-20 national team, and continued in that role until 1990.
. In 1990, he was promoted to manager of the national team, leading Germany to a EURO 96 win. He stepped down as manager in 1998 after Germany's shock quarter-final exit at the World Cup finals in France.
. He was appointed manager of Bayer Leverkusen in November 2000. The following May, despite earning Bayer Leverkusen UEFA Champions League qualification, he was fired.
. He became manager of the Kuwait national team in August 2001.
After six months with Kuwait, Vogts resigned to assume the position of manager of the Scottish national team. During his 2½-year tenure there, the Scots' international record was poor, with home defeats by Norway and Hungary, and a humiliating 2-2 draw with the team of the tiny Faroe Islands.
. An October 2004 draw with Moldova essentially put paid to Scotland's hopes of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, and Vogts came under renewed pressure to quit. He resigned the following month, with a year and a half remaining on his contract, citing "disgraceful abuse" from the fans and the media. He later vowed never to return to football management following this "abuse" although has not ruled out a return to football on a coaching basis.
Worse was to come for Vogts when Walter Smith took charge of Scotland on 2 December 2004 and the team saw an immediate turn around in fortune; many high profile players spoke to the press saying that the team under Vogts suffered from "lack of direction" and "poor man management".
On 15 January 2007, the Nigerian Football Body announced Vogts as the new head coach of the Nigerian national team, succeeding Augustine Eguavoen.
His first official match in charge will be 24 March 2007 against Uganda, after agreeing to a 4 year contract. He already dropped some key players from this match.
. Like I said earlier, it's quite enlightening. Let's see what he does for Super Eagles. Hopefully, it won't be thesame thing he did with the Scottish national team. Amen
