Addis Ababa – Former Swindon Town head coach, Ifem “Iffy” Onuora has signed a 1-year deal to coach the Ethiopian national football team in a ceremony held at the Sheraton Hotel here.
The 42-year-old ex-professional footballer was born in Glasgow, Scotland on July 28, 1967, and he is of Nigerian descent.
Coach Onuora is expected to receive a monthly salary of $13,000, and will also be provided free housing, an automobile, two free air tickets and phone service. The coach’s salary and other expenses will be covered by MIDROC Ethiopia, a company owned by Ethiopian-born billionaire Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi.
| Iffy Onuora | ||
| Personal information | ||
| Full name | Ifem Onuora | |
| Date of birth | July 28, 1967 (1967-07-28) (age 42) | |
| Place of birth | Glasgow, Scotland | |
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | |
| Playing position | Striker (retired) | |
| Senior career1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1988-1989 1989-1994 1994-1996 1996-1998 1998-2000 2000 2000-2002 2002-2004 2003 2003 2003-2004 2004 2004 2004 |
Bradford University Football Club Huddersfield Town Mansfield Town Gillingham Swindon Town ? Gillingham (loan) Gillingham Sheffield United ? Wycombe Wanderers (loan) ? Grimsby Town (loan) Grimsby Town Tranmere Rovers Huddersfield Town Walsall |
unknown 165 (30) 028 0(8) 062 (23) 074 (25) 001 0(0) 085 (26) 007 0(1) 006 0(0) 008 0(1) 011 0(2) 003 0(0) 003 0(1) 000 0(0) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 2005 2007 2008 |
Swindon Town Gillingham (caretaker) Lincoln City (caretaker) |
|
Stats Info: Wikipedia
Thanks for a interesting blog post!
Wow thats my dad so proud of him <3
Iffy is a nice guy, and was unlucky managing at Swindon, he took us down got us playing good football and we were in more of a mess before he took over. He turned up at our school when he was a player and is still in high regard as player at the club. I really hope he gets given a good chance in the future and deserves it here, although I am surprised, hopefully he can bring Ethiopia back up to a higher standard, get them qualifying for the African Nations would be an good and realistic achievement. Good luck to Iffy.
PS: Joshi, Swindon aren’t an unknown club, we were in the Premiership in the early 90′s and beat Arsenal to win the League Cup in 1969.
Will support IFFY all the way and give him my support 100%.Just hope some of the fans change their way supporting the team i.e chanting,singing & clapping until the game begins then moaning,insulting the players the rest of the match.Or just celebrating when we score a goal otherwise otherwise keeping quiet as if we are in a library.
Iffy is a legend. He can spot talent where others can’t and i’ve seen him work it tirelessly. If he doesn’t succeed at first, then he doesn’t give up. He may not win any beauty contests, but what do you want? Give him a few months and have them well drilled. He also knows a few good songs which will help with tam spirit on the team bus and in the bar afterwards.
Mr. Mitiku with all due respects it nice for you to play in USA Collage team. For me the suggestion that you try to give is not fair and doesn’t fell right. First of all the game is called FOOTBALL except in one country (USA). We Ethiopians need to work hard in many things like our politics, Roads, infrastructures, schools, hospitals, football etc. Try to compare what happened in US and in Ethiopia is crazy dude. If you suggest us to stop the football … i say we need to stop everything because we are not competitive with the world largest country. In addition if you feel you have good skill better than the national team players hey ask for a try out. Other than that the kind of suggestion you have is childish and unreal. We can not stop being a human no matter how poor our players are we do not stop having a national team….we the people of Ethiopia love football and hope some day a generation who wipe our tears will come till then we straggle with what we have now.
GOD BLESSES ETHIOPIA AND THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA!!!!!!!!!
Hey guys it was nice to read all of your thoughts some was right and some was worng, but what i think is we don’t have any good players to play todays football or soccer and i don’t think you is going to do much with our national team, its just thay are not good at all. the college team that am playing now in USA will make look the your national team look very bad and we all are b/n 19 to 23…I think he should be coaching the little boys from 5 to 15 thats it, for get about our national team for another 15 to 10 years…they don’t work right, they don’t look right with ball, they don’t life right, and they don’t think right… O yeah and all of them are too old play soccer
Ethiopian lucks international experience. we need more friendly games out side or inside Ethiopia.As we all know coaches are good when the team is wining no matter what type of coach he or she is. we could hire top coach from around the world, unless we implement good program we will be in dog house for anther 100 years.our football federation must wake up and faces realty and willing to learn from other success full countries how to conduct proper foot ball program. 1 year deal is not enough for coach to run national team give him enough time at least 2-3 years contract. this national team need a lot experience i wonder how many friendly games they play a year to gel players together?
Those of you who are complaining about his cv, what are you looking for? Venger? Fergusson?Gardiolla? Face it , we are not as good as that . Give the man REAL CHANCE ( Not Just a one year contract EFF).
AFEWORK from bahirdar university;
That is good iff onuora to sign 1 year deal. but we all,starting from ordinary person uptu officials of the federation should know one big thing can not be acheived in shorter period of time.since it is also football victory is achieved with longer period of time and repititive training asisted by modern training technices.so what ever coach comes longlasting result is acheived by time + training. From all these longlasting football change(fruitful result) is acheived if and only if the footbal federation designs a project for a number of football acadamies throughout the country.
good luck Mr.Iffy
hope the players respect him!!1 Just saying
This is greet newsss…
new coach new team it’s abt tym fo ethiopia to b competetive football team.
i cant wait to play fo ethiopia.!!
Give the guy a chance!
What kind of international experiences have our coaches?
do they have FIFA pro licens?
To coach a team an education + experience + eye for the sport + the passion is needed..NOt all are capable.
Lets just hope if he can come up with something great. If at all the players are goin let him do what he wants,coz our players are so difficult to get along. Almost all are addicted to alchols,chat ….i dont know when our football is goin to shine.
hello guyes give him a chance don’t talk rubbish.we alrady our coaches they cant do nothing.
I hope he put our football one step up and i think he help us to join the new coacing method and football technology.because he has good practice from diferent league specialy europian football league.
so please be on him side and we don’t expect everything perfect in one night!
I don’t think if a coach from the UK could help our national team, no offence it’s just the football style because we can’t play long and physical football, we are not made to play that kind of football but the coach would know what to do after he sees what he has to work with. Like some one already said Ethiopian coaches are known not accept foreign coaches but hopefully they don’t do it again. BTW to the guy who said we shouldn’t get a coach who coaches in English third division, I can tell Coca Cola League one is way better the Ethiopian Premier League and I am Ethiopian.
are you guys serious about this..? Look at his resume the guy was no where…he become a coach just at the end of 2004 for unkown team called very Swindon Town ( 3rd division ) …just for two years that it…! he was a was assistant coach for the last 3 years the guy is come from no where and he didn’t go no where…!!! they better give the team for mengistu worku, luciano vasalo…..with that money we can hire coach from ghana …no ghana is much better than Scottland …
ha ha. who is iffy? it looks like he played for some local teams in scotland/england or whatever.you know what the ethiopian equivalent for those teams? rapi samuna, korki ena tasa…
anyways, its a good step forward unless the local coaches not get jealous and prepare his downfall like they did it several times
I’m absolutely delighted for him! Met him a few times when he was at Town in the early 90′s, really nice, genuine and friendly bloke.
I hope he does really well for them.
He was a true Town legend!!!
Iffy will bring pace, power and unlimited goals, just like he did at Tranmere, the guy’s a Tranmere Legend.
Iffy for Scotland !!!!
I am hopeful he will be successful like Garziato. Let’s stand by him. C’on Ethiopia, Africa.