Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side El-Kanemi Warriors on Tuesday unveiled former Rangers coach, Imama Amapakabo as head of their technical crew for the next football season.
The club earlier this month parted ways with their coach of two seasons, Ladan Bosso and last week announced that Amapakabo, a member of the China ’85 Nigerian winning side has agreed to join the Borno state government sponsored club.
Amapakabo’s unveiling was done in a short ceremony on Tuesday chaired by El-Kanemi’s club chairman Alhaji Zanna Mala Kakaje with other board members present.
“I am bringing myself to the team, the team is not bringing themselves to me,” Amapakabo told www.aclsports.com shortly after the unveiling ceremony.
“I’m not under any kind of pressure. The pressure I’m putting under myself is myself. I’ve been successful in South-South and South-East so I want to be successful now in North-East,” he expatiated.
Under Amapakabo’s predecessor, Bosso, El-Kanemi finished sixth in the last NPFL season, two places higher than they finished in Bosso’s first season in charge of the Maiduguri-based side. Amapakabo was quick to identify the team’s undoing in previous seasons and is hopeful of better things under his reins.
“Kudos to the past coach who has done a wonderful work in the past two seasons. I had talks with him and we’ve exchanged a lot of ideas.
“Having said that, I think they’ve been bad travelers due to certain factors and those are some of the areas I want to better them in. Once we get good results on the road and keep our heads at home I think we’ll be better for it,” he posited.
El-Kanemi Warriors are unbeaten at home since they returned to Maiduguri in 2016 despite that the Maiduguri Township Stadium pitch is not one of the best around suitable for Amapakabo’s free-flowing footballing philosophy. The former Enyimba coach is however optimistic the pitch will be made better before the next season starts.
“When I came in, I’ve been able to inspect the facilities and I’ve been able to speak with people in authority and they assured they are going to take care of the pitch.
“If they don’t take care of the pitch, it is going to affect my philosophy and the way I want to play so I have the assurances that it is going to be fixed in no time before the league season commences so that they also can see some good football,” concluded Amapakabo to www.aclsports.com
Amapakabo in 2016 led Enugu Rangers to their first league title in over 30 years and will be hoping to land El-Kanemi their first piece of silverware in decades when the new Nigerian league season commences.
