AFSCOAN BOOSTED WITH NEW SIGNINGS INTO ELITE STATUS

The African Football Scouts and Coaches Association (AFSCOAN) has today revealed a list of coaches, who have indicated their willingness to be a part of the group, and who have been elevated to Elite Associate status based on their pedigree. They automatically become Pioneer Members of our AFSCOAN Coaches Club.

Headlining the list of new Elite Members is World Cup winning, former Barcelona star Emmanuel Amunike. 
Amunike was a winner of the Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria as a player in 1994, was also African Player of the Year, been to 2 World Cups with Nigeria. He was also the Head Coach of Nigeria’s U17 team that won the FIFA U17 World Cup in Chile in 2015. Also a former coach of Tanzania, he is currently the Technical Director of Egyptian top-flight club, Misr Let Makhasa.
‘It is an honour to be a part of this great movement and I give my personal endorsement to it’, Amunike said. ‘I believe this movement will ensure the growth and development of coaching in Africa. It is long overdue and very much needed’. he concluded.

Also joining is former Nigerian Super Eagle, Premier League midfielder Seyi Olofinjana, who is currently the Sporting Director at FC Grasshopper Zurich, Switzerland.

Olofinjana, who also runs the Imperial Football Academy in Nigeria said ‘I believe this union of coaches who have a common passion for the growth of the game will be good’, adding, ‘scouting is the bedrock of coaching in the modern world, and Africa surely needs more intellectuals to take up scouting and see where it takes them’.
Himself a Masters degree holder in Engineering, he believes that it is wrong to shut out people from the profession because they probably did not have the chance to play the game.

Our other Elite Members are John Keister, Sierra Leone’s national team coach.

Jacqueline Shipanga, a respected FIFA instructor on women’s football and the national coach of Namibia’s three national women’s teams.

Carl Ikeme is also an Elite Member. He is Nigeria’s former goalkeeper whose career came to an untimely end when he was diagnosed with leukaemia. He has made a full recovery from it. He has retained his passion for the game, and is determined to continue in football.

The national head coach of Kenya, Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee is also an Elite Member who has pledged to give his support to the younger ones who want to take up scouting and coaching. ‘It is a great initiative – one that we need in Africa’, he said.
Mulee is the coach of Harambee Stars who holds the record of being re-appointed to the same position five different times over the years. He also has coaching experience in APR Rwanda, Yanga FC Tanzania and Tusker FC in his native Kenya.

Making up the list is the well-travelled James Salinsa Debbah, former Liberian national team player, former player in Monaco, Nice and PSG and also a former coach of the Liberian U20 National Team.