BRUNO LABBADIA ANNOUNCED AS NEW SUPER EAGLES COACH
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), on Tuesday announced that it has reached an agreement with German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, to become the Head Coach of Nigeriaās Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles.
NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said: āThe 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.ā
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 Gƶller (1981), Manfred Hƶner (1988-1989), Berti Vogts (2007-2008) and Gernot Rohr (2016-2021) to lead the Super Eagles. Hƶner 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.
Labbadiās 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.
SOMEĀ SUPER EAGLESā COACHES IN HISTORY
John Finch (England) ā 1949
Daniel Anyiam (Nigeria) ā 1954-1956; 1964-1965
Les Courtier (England) ā 1956-1960
Moshe Beit Halevi (Israel) ā 1960-1961
George Vardar (Hungary) ā 1961-1963