Salah, Cuper deserve CAF Awards —Rohr

Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr has admitted that the newly crowned African Player of the Year, Mohamed Salah and the Coach of the Year, Hector Cuper, deserve their respective awards.

The Egyptian striker and his national coach both took home the biggest awards of the night at the 2017 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards Gala in Accra, Ghana last Thursday.

Rohr, who was a contender for the Coach award after leading Nigeria through a tough group to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, says the Egypt duo deserved the titles considering their performance at the Nations Cup last January.

No Nigerian player made the final shortlist for the Best Player award, and the Super Eagles, who were contenders in the Men’s National Team of the Year award, lost the title to the Pharoahs of Egypt.

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But Rohr believes the poor showing for the country at the Awards will only spur his side to do better at the upcoming global showpiece in Russia.

“We have already a big motivation to play a good World Cup. And I am sure that the players would like to be the best African team this year,” Rohr said.

“I am also proud to be among the three nominees for African Coach of the Year.

“Egypt, their best player (Mohamed Salah) and their coach (Hector Cuper) deserved the awards.

“They made a very good AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations 2017), while we (Nigeria) didn’t play.”

The Eagles qualified for the World Cup and have been drawn in Group D alongside Argentina, Croatia and Iceland.

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