NFF Appoints Finidi George As Super Eagles Head Coach
The board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Committee to appoint Finidi George as Head Coach of the Super Eagles.
George, who spent 20 months as assistant to coach José Santos Peseiro before the Portuguese voluntarily left the post after the accomplishment of the Africa Cup of Nations runner-up position at Cote d’Ivoire 2023, took charge of the squad in an 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 as the second most entertaining team in Nigeria’s debut at the FIFA World Cup finals in the 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.
George’s immediate task will be to guide the Super Eagles to victory in two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against South Africa and the Benin Republic in Uyo and Abidjan respectively, in a little over five weeks.
The matches are must-win encounters, with the Super Eagles lagging in third place in Group C of the African campaign behind Rwanda and South Africa.
