The Nigeria Football Federation has announced that it has reached an agreement with German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, to become the Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles.

NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said in the early hours of Tuesday: “The NFF Executive Committee has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to appoint Mr. Bruno Labbadia as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles. The appointment is with immediate effect.”

Born in Darmstadt, Germany on 8th February 1966, Labbadia, who won two caps for Die Mannschaft in his playing career that took him through clubs such as home-town team Darmstadt 98, Hamburger SV, FC Kaiserslautern, Bayern Munich, FC Cologne, Werder Bremen, Armenia Bielefeld and Karlsruher SC, triumphed in the German Bundesliga with Bayern Munich as a player in 1994. He coached famous names Hertha Berlin and VfB Stuttgart this decade, and previously, VfL Wolfsburg, Hamburger SV, Bayer Leverkusen, among others, and holds a UEFA Pro License.

He is only the sixth German, after Karl-Heinz Marotzke (who had two stints between 1970 and 1974), Gottlieb Göller (1981), Manfred Höner (1988-1989), Berti Vogts (2007-2008) and Gernot Rohr (2016-2021) to lead the Super Eagles. Höner led the Eagles to runner-up position at the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations, while Rohr qualified and led Nigeria to the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia.

Labbadi’s immediate challenge is to take charge of the three-time African champions for two 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Saturday 7th September in Uyo) and Rwanda (Tuesday, 10th September in Kigali), with four other matches to conclude the qualifying race following in the months of October and November.

WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THIS APPOINTMENT?

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Contesting only for the first-time ever in the WAFU B zonal qualifiers of the CAF African Schools Football Championship, Nigeria’s representatives, National Grammar School, were gallant losers to their counterparts from Cote d’Ivoire in a hotly-contested semi final match at the Stade Municipal de Kegue in Lome on Saturday evening. The 1-0 defeat meant the boys from Enugu will have to contend for the bronze medals against Ghana’s flag bearers on Sunday.

In their first match on Thursday, the National Grammar School boys routed the representatives of the Republic of Togo (host nation) 4-0. In their second match, they drew 1-1 with the team that represented Cote d’Ivoire.

On Saturday, a bizarre schedule saw them play three matches. They defeated Benin Republic 1-0, before losing 0-2 to Ghana’s representatives in a match they played the most part with 10 men after their central defender was red-carded. The unfavourable circumstances did not help as the team then lost 0-1 to Cote d’Ivoire’s representative team in the semi finals played on Saturday evening.

“The team did its best in the circumstances, though its best was not good enough. It is their first appearance and they gave it their best shot.

“We must commend the efforts of the Nigeria School Sports Federation, particularly its president, Dr Olabisi Temitope Joseph and the Chairman of its School Football Committee, Dr Obafunsho Usman for their efforts in organizing the National Finals that produced National Grammar School (in the male category) and FOSLA Academy (in the female category). This has been a learning curve for the schools, the NSSF and the NFF, and things can only get better,” NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi said in Lome on Saturday.

NFF’s Assistant Director (Technical), Mr. Abdulrafiu Yusuf confirmed that the Confederation of African Football, during the week, informed the NFF that it (CAF) will send a total of 800 balls to National Grammar School through the Federation, as the school’s reward for its participation in the WAFU B zonal finals.  

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