Izuchukwu OkosiThe Board of Nigeria Football Federation on Monday approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Committee to appoint former ace winger Finidi George as Head Coach of the Senior Men National Football Team, Super Eagles.
George spent 20 months as assistant to José Santos Peseiro who left his role after the Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelFinidi thus becomes Nigeria’s 41st men’s national team head coach.
The Enyimba coach was in charge of the two international friendlies that the team played in March against Ghana and Mali in Marrakech, Morocco.
The one-time Ajax and Real Betis winger whose goal in the 8 October 1993 World Cup qualifier against Algeria booked Nigeria’s ticket to a maiden World Cup in the USA the following year was not the only Nigerian in the running as former international and 1994 African Footballer of the Year winner, Emmanuel Amunike was considered as a strong candidate for the job.
Former Calabar Rovers winger Finidi played 60 times for Nigeria and was Nigeria’s 40th scoring debutant when he came as a substitute in a 7-1 defeat of Burkina Faso on 27 July 1991.
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Finidi was an influential player for Nigeria at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and was part of the USA 94 and France 98 World Cups.
Incidentally, his major task now is to qualify Nigeria to another World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
The match against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa is 35 days away from this Monday.
Feelers from sources that do not want to be named revealed that Amunike was the choice of the sports minister while Finidi had always been the preferred one for the NFF if an indigenous coach eventually gets the job rather than a foreigner.
Some media reports (not Prime Business Africa) last week published news of the appointment of Amunike as the replacement for Portuguese tactician, Peseiro, who was said to have been recommended by Jose Mourinho.
Following the departure of Peseiro whose contract negotiations with the NFF to continue as Eagles coach were unsuccessful, Finidi and some other coaches – including foreign coaches – were named as leading candidates to lead the deputy African champions.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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