Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Former Super Eagles winger and Enyimba FC coach, Finidi George, has been appointed as the new Head Coach of the Super Eagles.
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, announced this in a statement on Monday.
Finidi George, 52, spent 20 months as an Assistant to the outgone José Santos Peseiro.
The former Ajax Amsterdam forward, had been serving as the interim coach after Peseiro’s exit following the Super Eagles’ impressive run to the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
During his interim tenure, George oversaw two friendly matches in Morocco last month, where the team ended an 18-year winless streak against Ghana with a 2-1 victory before suffering a 0-2 loss to Mali.
“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 USA the same year, won 62 caps for Nigeria, including featuring at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals,” the NFF statement read.
The new Super Eagles handler’s immediate task will be to guide the team to victory in two crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against South Africa and the Benin Republic in Uyo and Abidjan, respectively, within the next five weeks.
The NFF statement emphasised that “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.”
