By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Six months after the erstwhile head coach of Nigeria’s senior male football team Super Eagles, José Peseiro left his position and several weeks of searching for a replacement for his Nigerian successor, George Finidi, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in the wee hours of Tuesday, August 27 announced the appointment of a German Bruno Labbadia as the substantive head coach of Nigeria.
The announcement which was made in the dead of the night came after many months of Wide Goose chase after a so-called “world class coach” of European extraction to turn around the fortunes of Super Eagles in the two-pronged FIFA World Cup African qualifiers and African Cup of Nations (AFCON) play-off matches which are coming thick and fast.
However, Prompt News has gathered that NFF made the belated announcement of Bruno Labbadia as Super Eagles new coach after many months of horse-trading, intrigues and outright deceit by the federation and its Technical Committee to save face due to the closeness of two crucial AFCON matches.
The Super Eagles will face Benin Republic led by Nigeria’s former coach Gernot Rohr in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state on Saturday, September 7, before clashing with Rwanda on Tuesday, September 10 in Kigali.
For six months, the NFF Technical Committee saddled with the task to shortlist, interview and recommend qualified candidates to the NFF Executive Committee to pick the best of the lot to manage the Super Eagles made mockery of the task given to the Committee by not executing the job.
Many highly qualified candidates comprising indigenous and expatriate coaches had applied for the vacant post after the NFF advertised the position vacated by the Portuguese gaffer José Peseiro early in the year.
No fewer than 12 candidates submitted applications indicating their interest for the vacant Super Eagles head coach job to the NFF before the deadline day on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Yet, many other names of coaches approached by the federation surfaced after application closed.
Among top indigenous coaches who applied for the job include former Nigeria’s U-17 football team Golden Eaglets Emmanuel Amuneke who coached the team to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup; former Super Eagles assistant coach Daniel Amokachi and ex- Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh as well as George Finidi.
Others are former Indomitable Lions of Cameroon coach Antonio Conceicao, ex-Super Eagles player Sylvanus Okpala and Nigeria-American coach Michael Nsien who is the current head coach of the United States U-19 male football team.
Also applied for the job are Ndubuisi Egbo who became the first-ever Nigerian coach to lead a European team to a league title after his team were crowned 2019/2020 Albanian League champions, the team also qualified for the Uefa Champions League and Henry Makinwa who is coaching in Vittoriosa Stars FC in Malta.
List of candidates interested in Super Eagles job:
- Michael Nsien
- Sylvanus Okpala
- Samson Siasia
- Daniel Amokachi
- Ndubuisi Egbo
- Salisu Yusuf
- Antonio Conceicao
- Emmanuel Amunike
- Sunday Oliseh
- Finidi George
- Henry Makinwa
Sadly, after several weeks of waiting NFF announced George Finidi as the substantive manager of Super Eagles to the surprise of many Nigerians but the former Ajax Amsterdam winger lasted just two underwhelming games incharge of the team.
He was appointed Nigeria’s coach in April and took charge of the 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers against Bafana Bafana and Benin. His team drew 1-1 against South Africa before losing 2-1 to Benin Republic’s Cheetahs to settle fifth in Group C.
Shockingly, the former Real Mallorca wideman stepped down as the Super Eagles coach, irked by the Federation’s plans to bring in a foreign Technical Advisor to boss him just as his resignation opened another window for the NFF to get the “world class coach” as ordered by Sports Minister Senator John Owan Enoh.
Instead of the “world class coach” the NFF on Tuesday announced Bruno Labbadia as Super Eagles coach in place of many prominent coaches whose names were bandied around in the Nigeria media.
They include former Sweden coach Janne Andersson; Englishman Steve McClaren; Eagles of Mali coach Èric Chelle; ex-coach of Gambia Tom Saintfiet and Herve Renard, ex- Manager of Zambia national team, with whom he won the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations; he also won the competition in 2015 with the Ivory Coast, becoming the first coach to win two AFCON trophies different teams.
However, investigations have revealed that Bruno Labbadia is far from being a “world class coach” both the Sports Minister and NFF promised Nigerians as his managerial record showed clearly that although he has extensive experience in managing top clubs in Germany, including Darmstadt 98 (2003-2006), Greuther Fürth (2007-2008), Bayer Leverkusen (2008-2009), Hamburger SV (2009-2010, 2015-2016), VfB Stuttgart (2010-2013, 2022-2023), VfL Wolfsburg (2018-2019), and Hertha BSC (2020-2021), he has never managed a national team before.
Curiously, Labbadia is a Sack Specialist as the former Bayern Munich striker has been dismissed from several managerial positions throughout his career. He has been fired several times, most recently from VfB Stuttgart due to poor performance.
His managerial statistics showed that Bruno Labbadia won 214 matches, drew 103 and lost 170, averaging 43.94 percent wins in 487 games, a record which makes him an average coach instead of a “world class coach” Nigerians were promised abinitio.
So it is obvious the NFF got a coach the federation can afford, a coach who going by the numbers had a below 50 percent success rate in his career because both who officially applied for the job and those whose names were dropped could not get the job because of their high wage demands. READ ALSO:
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Nevertheless, some of these indigenous coaches who applied for the job like former African Best Footballer, Emmanuel Amuneke possess better credentials including CAF A License; UEFA Pro License and Masters Degree certificate, than Bruno Labbadia who holds only the UEFA Pro License.
Also, Amuneke and Daniel Amokachi have added experience of coaching national teams in Africa at different times in their careers with the former even winning the FIFA U-17 World Cup trophy with Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets and both playing in the World Cup for their nation.
Finally, Nigerians are waiting with bated breath, fingers crossed and hoping that Nigeria will somehow scrape through the World Cup and AFCON qualifiers with their never changing confused, unsure, shambolic fire fighting brigade attitude of the country’s football administrators.
