{"id":34659,"date":"2024-06-13T08:35:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T08:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=34659"},"modified":"2024-06-13T08:35:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T08:35:28","slug":"awoniyi-backs-finidi-despite-rocky-start-as-super-eagles-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/06\/13\/awoniyi-backs-finidi-despite-rocky-start-as-super-eagles-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Awoniyi Backs Finidi Despite Rocky Start As Super Eagles\u2019 Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nottingham Forest\u2019s Nigerian forward, Taiwo Awoniyi, has voiced his support for Finidi George, to continue as the Super Eagles Head Coach despite a challenging start to his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>The former Ipswich Town and Ajax winger took over the reins in April after serving as Assistant Coach under Portuguese gaffer, Jose Peseiro, who guided Nigeria to the final of the 2023 African Cup of Nations but lost the title to Cote d\u2019Ivoire, albeit with Awoniyi sidelined due to a groin injury.<\/p>\n<p>Awoniyi made a triumphant return to action for Forest by scoring in a 2-1 loss to Arsenal at the City Ground in January. His six goals and three assists from 20 games in the 2023\/2024 Premier League helped Forest to avoid relegation after finishing in 17th position.<\/p>\n<p>Awoniyi expresses optimism about Finidi\u2019s appointment in an interview,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to keep progressing and it\u2019s good to welcome a new coach,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a good appointment and it will be good to meet him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Super Eagles\u2019 recent 2-1 defeat to Benin in a World Cup qualifying match, Awoniyi remains positive about the team\u2019s future under Finidi\u2019s leadership.<span data-ez-ph-id=\"915\"><span id=\"div-gpt-ad-completesports_com-mobile-leaderboard-1-0\" class=\"ezoic-ad ezads-sticky-intradiv\" data-google-query-id=\"CK3n--qL2IYDFW5jFQgdfLwI2A\"><\/span><span class=\"reportline\" data-nosnippet=\"\" data-ez-ph-owner-id=\"915\"><span class=\"ezoicwhat\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"ezoic\" src=\"https:\/\/go.ezodn.com\/utilcave_com\/ezoicbwa.png\" alt=\"Ezoic\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s lots of us [Nigerian players] now playing in the highest leagues in different countries,\u201d he noted. \u201cThat can only be a good thing and shows how strong we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His determination to continue growing and improving is evident, as he emphasises the importance of constant progression.<\/p>\n<p>Awoniyi added: \u201cFor me, it\u2019s always important to keep on wanting to do more. That is the way you have to be, in order to get better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can never settle, ever, for what you have got in football. You can never stand still.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nottingham Forest\u2019s Nigerian forward, Taiwo Awoniyi, has voiced his support for Finidi George, to continue as the Super Eagles Head Coach despite a challenging start to his tenure. The former Ipswich Town and Ajax winger took over the reins in April after serving as Assistant Coach under Portuguese gaffer, Jose Peseiro, who guided Nigeria to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[616],"class_list":["post-34659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-awoniyi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34662,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34659\/revisions\/34662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}