TFF names former Barcelona player Amunike as Taifa Stars head coach

Dar es Salaam.

Amunike takes the position left by the immediate-past coach Salum Mayanga whose contract expired this year.

For the past few years, Taifa Stars were under a number of foreign coaches before Charles Boniface Mkwasa took charge of the team in 2015. Mkwasa was then replaced in 2017 by Salum Mayanga whose contract has just expired.

Much earlier, Taifa Stars were under the tutelage of a Brazilian tactician, Marcio Maximo, from 2006 to 2010.

Also in the litany of foreign coaches who trained the Stars was tactician Jan Poulsen. The Dane won the Senior East and Central Africa Challenge Cup with the team in 2010.

The Dane coached the team until 2014 when Mart Nooij from The Netherlands took over from mid-2014 to 2015. Noorji was the last foreign trainer to coach the team after which TFF turned to local coaches, for starters naming Salum Madadi as head coach.

TFF President Wallace Karia said Amunike has considerable experience with African football as a player and, now, national coach.

Noting that Amunike signed two years contract with TFF, Karia said Amunike led the Nigerian national soccer team as a player, to win the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994 after scoring two goals. Amunike will be assisted another Nigeria former player, Emeka Amadi.

He also played for Zamalek of Egypt and Sporting Lisbon of Portugal to name only two clubs.

The Nigerian super star was assistant coach of the Al Hazm club of Saudi Arabia in 2008 -- later joining Julius Berger  of Nigeria before taking the mandate of coaching Nigeria U-17 from 2014 to last year.

He thereafter joined Al Khartoum SC of Sudan.