The Nigeria Football Federation has said it will announce the assistants for the new Super Eagles coach, Finidi George, as soon as the new handler makes his choices.
Finidi was appointed as the substantive coach of the team on Monday having also taken charge of the team on an interim basis after the departure of Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro.
He was handed the job ahead of former FIFA U-17 World Cup-winning coach Emmanuel Amuneke, U.S. U-19 men’s team coach Michael Nsien among other candidates.
Following his announcement, Amuneke, Nsien, and ex-international Daniel Amokachi were rumored to be Finidi’s potential assistant coaches that would be named by the NFF, but the nation’s football governing body has distanced itself from that rumor.
When contacted about who and how soon the assistants will be announced, NFF’s spokesman, Ademola Olajire said, “I have no idea. The coach will pick his assistants and when he does, the NFF will announce.”
Finidi, who spent 20 months as an assistant to Peseiro is the 27th coach of the Super Eagles. He was part of the silver-winning team at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast and took charge of the squad in an interim capacity during two friendly matches against Ghana and Mali in Morocco last month.
His squad edged Ghana 2-1 in the first match, ending an 18-year winless streak against the Black Stars, but then lost 2-0 to Mali in the second game.
The former Ajax man was a member of the team that won the 1994 AFCON in Tunisia and also 62 caps for Nigeria, including featuring at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals.
Finidi’s immediate task will be to guide the Super Eagles to victory in two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against South Africa and Benin Republic in Uyo and Abidjan respectively, in a little over five weeks. The matches are must-win encounters, with the Super Eagles lagging behind in third place in Group C of the African campaign behind Rwanda and South Africa.
