COD Utd land Eguavoen

Austin Eguavoen (right) after signing for COD United

Nigeria National League (NNL) club, City Of David United have announced the appointment of Austin Eguavoen as their head coach.

"C.O.D United have announced today the appointment of former national team captain and manager, Augustine Eguavoen as its Manager," a statement read on the official website of the club on Friday.

Supersport.com has learned that Eguavoen will stay with the White Lions till the end of the 2012/13 National League season with an option of renewal at the end of this term.

However, the financial details of the contract with the former Nigeria head coach is undisclosed.

Eguavoen explained why he accepted to opt for COD United in spite of playing in the second tier of Nigeria's football league.

“I am very happy to join COD United. I am very excited about their approach to football and I feel at home already. They are forward looking, very ambitious and brave which are all attributes I share. I have seen the players, they are talented no doubt and all I can do is make them even better and work with them to gain promotion.

"I actually see this as a great move for me. This is a hugely ambitious club. It is well run by intelligent people and all the structures even the so-called premier league clubs lack are all in place here. I am definitely positive this is a good move for me and I am sure come end of the season when we gain promotion, I would be proved right," said Eguavoen.

Chief executive of the club, Shola Opaleye said the hiring of Eguavoen boils down to his experience at the "very highest level of football."

Opaleye hopes the coach's football philosophy will rub off on the team as they seek to win promotion to the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

He also outlined the club's expectation from Eguavoen.

"Eguavoen is highly experienced at the very highest level of football and we hope he can bring his wealth of experience to bear on our ambitions to gain promotion. He is passionate, driven and ambitious and we are glad to have him join us.

"We have very good young players here and we have further reinforced by signing experienced hands like Kabiru Alausa. We feel putting Eguavoen in charge now is the right thing to do and we hope his knowledge, experience and leadership skills would help our players become better and help us gain promotion.

"One of his immediate goals is to improve the quality of our play so that fans that troop out to watch us play will get value for their time and money. That is very important to us. We want a mix of good performances and good results," said Opaleye.

Eguavoen resumes next week, as assistant coach, Solomon Mannasseh will take charge of COD United's game away to Abia Warriors this weekend.

Last week, the White Lions parted ways with their former head coach, Olabode Awakan on mutual consent following a string of unimpressive results.

COD United currently sit in fourth spot in the National League standings and are three points behind table-topping Crown  FC.