After a long wait for a substantive coach for the senior national team, Super Eagles, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), yesterday, named former Ajax Amsterdam midfielder, Finidi George, as the team’s new head coach.
The Super Eagles’ managerial position became vacant when Portuguese, Jose Peseiro, stepped down after leading the team to the second position at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire in February.
Since Peseiro’s exit, there have been speculations as to the identity of the Super Eagles’ new helmsman, with many Nigerians campaigning for another former national team star, Emmanuel Amunike. But the NFF, yesterday, opted for continuity in picking George, who was Peseiro’s assistant during the Portuguese’ tour of duty in Nigeria.
In announcing George as Nigeria’s new head coach, the NFF said it accepted the recommendations of its technical committee, which chose the Enyimba of Aba coach over nine other applicants for the position.
George, who spent 20 months as assistant to Peseiro, took charge of the squad in interim capacity during two friendly matches in Morocco last month.
His squad edged Ghana 2-1 in the first match, ending an 18-year winless streak against the Black Stars, but then lost 0-2 to Mali in the second game.
George, a member of the so-styled ‘Golden Generation’ that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Tunisia and emerged the second most entertaining team in Nigeria’s debut at the FIFA World Cup finals in USA the same year, won 62 caps for Nigeria, including featuring at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals. He also won gold, silver and bronze medals from the 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2002 AFCON tournaments.
The 52-year-old former Ajax Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Real Betis (Spain) forward, who made a scoring debut for fatherland in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Burkina Faso at the National Stadium, Lagos on July 27, 1991, also featured for Calabar Rovers and Sharks FC in the domestic scene before heading to Europe. He assisted Rashidi Yekini (of blessed memory) to score Nigeria’s first-ever FIFA World Cup goal against Bulgaria in Dallas, U.S. on June 19, 1994.
George had actually scored the goal that took Nigeria to that FIFA World Cup debut, when he put Nigeria ahead against hosts Algeria in a crucial qualifier in Algiers on October 8, 1993. The match eventually ended 1-1 and earned Nigeria a ticket to the finals in America.
The new gaffer’s immediate task will be to guide the Super Eagles to victory in two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against South Africa and Benin Republic in Uyo and Abidjan respectively, in a little over five weeks. The matches are must-win encounters, with the Super Eagles lagging behind in third place in Group C of the African campaign behind Rwanda and South Africa.
