By Victor Kanayo
A German, Bruno Labbadia, has been appointed the 37th head of Nigeria’s Super Eagles.
This was disclosed via a statement to Heritage Times HT by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in the early hours of Tuesday in Abuja.
The NFF said the German tactician’s first task will be to take charge of two Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Benin Republic and Rwanda.
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,” the statement by NFF Communications department said.
The country’s senior men’s national team have been without a coach since Finidi George resigned his appointment about two months ago.
After first two Nations Cup qualifiers, the new coach will lead Nigerian team to 2026 World Cup qualifier.
Nigeria is yet to win any match after playing four matches in the qualifiers.
