NFF appoints Finidi George as new Super Eagles Head Coach
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Monday has appointed former winger Finidi George as Head Coach of the Super Eagles.
This followed the NFF’s Board’s approval of the recommendation of its Technical and Development Committee.
Former Super Eagles player, Emmanuel Amuneke, among others, had also been in the running for the position.
George, who spent 20 months as assistant to José Peseiro before the Portuguese voluntarily left the post following the Africa Cup of Nations runner-up position at Cote d’Ivoire 2023, took charge of the squad in interim capacity during two friendly matches in Morocco last month.
As interim coach, he led the Super Eagles to a 2-1 win against 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 famed ‘Golden Generation’ that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations 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.
Aside from 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 (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 provided the assist for the late Rashidi Yekini to score Nigeria’s first-ever FIFA World Cup goal against Bulgaria at USA 1994.
