The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have confirmed the appointment of German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, as the new Super Eagles coach.
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.”
The Super Eagles have been without a permanent coach since former Ajax player, Finidi George left the job few months after taking over from Jose Peseiro.
Bruno Labbadia, born 8 February 1966, is a German football manager and former player who played as a striker. He won the DFB-Pokal in 1989-90 with 1. FC Kaiserslautern and the Bundesliga in 1993-94 with FC Bayern Munich. He was also capped twice for the German team. Started managerial career with Darmstadt 98 from 2000 to 2003. He last managed VfB Stuttgart in 2022/23 season .
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 Septemberin Uyo) and Rwanda (Tuesday, 10th Septemberin Kigali), with four other matches to conclude the qualifying race following in the months of October and November.
