The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has named Nigeria’s interim coach Augustine Eguavoen the best manager at the group stage of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations.
CAF announced this on its website after AFCON 2021 group stage, saying that its Technical Study Group shortlisted the Best of the Group Stage.
He was named after winning the three matches at group stage.
Eguavoen-led Nigerian team have been outstanding at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations.
Nigeria had eased into the Round of 16 as group leaders, with a match to spare, courtesy of the wins over Egypt and Sudan in their two matches and the combination of other results, notably Egypt’s defeat of Guinea Bissau on Saturday.
Despite that, the team defeated Guinea Bissau 2-0 to record 100 per cent victory in their group stage.
Apart from Eguavoen, others who bagged awards are:
Surprise Team: Comoros
Revelation Team: Equatorial Guinea, Gambia
Best Player: Vincent Abubakar (Cameroon)
Best Scorer: Vincent Abubakar (Cameroon)
Best Young Player: Ilaix Moriba (Guinea)
Best Goalkeeper: Mohamed Elshennawy (Egypt)
Former Eagles’ captain Eguavoen featured for the Nigeria senior team for 11 years, between 1987 and 1998, during which he lifted the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994, held aloft the Afro-Asian Cup the following year, played in three AFCON finals (it could have been six but he missed the 1990 finals in Algeria; Nigeria withdrew from the 1996 finals and; was barred from the 1998 competition) and featured at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals. He won a total of 51 senior caps.
