Burkina Faso Rejects Keshi

Stephen Keshi will not be the next coach of Burkina Faso as imagined in some quarters. Instead a German called Gernot Rohr has been named coach of the national football team, reports on the CAF website and a Burkinabe online portal koaci.com said on Wednesday.
After several weeks of speculations, Keshi admitted this week that his agent had been in talks with the Burkina Faso federation over the vacant national team top post.
He said on Monday, “My agent is talking with them (Burkina Faso). We are all professional coaches. We cannot stay in one place and say okay a job is going to come.”
The former Super Eagles captain had as well remained as the sole candidate for the Nigeria job since last year before the opportunity to coach the Burkina Stallions came on the line and he accordingly pursued both jobs. Earlier this week also, the Nigeria federation boss Amaju Pinnick reportedly said they were waiting on Keshi to accept the terms of the contract and could then start as the Eagles coach before the end of the week. Keshi’s first tenure with the national team ended with the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
On Wednesday Keshi spoke with our correspondent after missing out on the job.
“It was a privilege to be considered in the first place. Someone has to get the job and they can’t appoint everyone that applied,” he said.
“I’m not really bothered, such things happen. I’m going to consider other options I have and move on.”
In Ouagadougou, Rohr, a French-German replaces Belgian Paul Put, who parted ways with the Stallions after the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations ended in Equatorial Guinea this month.
The report quoted a statement by the Federation Burkinabe de Football released on Tuesday night as announcing the new appointment explained that the federation settled for the 61-year old as the best option of the final three candidates.
Before this, the FBF had named a three-man shortlist which had Rohr, Keshi and Milovan Rajevac of Serbia from 38 applications received for the vacant post. The Burkinabe FA officials have indicated that the German trainer would be unveiled to the press in the next few days after the finalisation of the terms of engagement between the two parties.
Before the new appointment, Rohr had managed Gabon and Niger, guiding the former to the quarter finals of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
A defender during his playing days, Rohr had also coached at French sides Bordeaux – a team he guided to the 2006 UEFA Cup final. He has also coached Nice, Young Boys of Switzerland and Tunisia’s Etoile du Sahel.