Duro Ikhazuagbe
After months of dilly dallying over who to succeed Portuguese Jose Peseiro as Tremendous Eagles Head Coach, the Board of the Nigeria Soccer Federation (NFF) on Monday lastly accredited the advice of its Technical and Growth Committee to handover the job to former winger, Finidi George.
The announcement by the NFF places to relaxation speculations that had earlier pointed within the path of one other former Tremendous Eagles Star, Emmanuel Amuneke, because the gaffer chosen for the job.
George, a former Ajax and Actual Betis participant whose quick duty on assuming the submit is to vogue a successful system towards South Africa and Benin Republic in 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June, spent 20 months understudying the Portuguese as an assistant coach.
In slightly over 5 weeks, the previous Sharks and Calabar Rovers star will lead Nigeria into the must-win encounters in Uyo (towards South Africa) and Abidjan(towards Benin Republic). The Tremendous Eagles are lagging behind in third place in Group C of the African marketing campaign behind Rwanda and South Africa.
George, 53, was in command of Eagles after Peseiro left the submit after his contract expired with the 2023 AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire.
His squad edged Ghana 2-1 within the first match, ending an 18-year winless streak towards the Black Stars, however then misplaced 0-2 to Mali within the second sport.
George, a member of the ‘Golden Technology’ that gained the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations match in Tunisia and emerged the second most entertaining workforce in Nigeria’s debut on the FIFA World Cup finals in USA the identical yr, gained 62 caps for Nigeria, together with that includes on the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals. He additionally gained gold, silver and bronze medals from the 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2002 AFCON tournaments.
He made a scoring debut for fatherland in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match towards Burkina Faso on the Nationwide Stadium, Lagos on twenty seventh July 1991, additionally featured for Calabar Rovers and Sharks FC within the home scene earlier than heading to Europe. He assisted Rashidi Yekini (of blessed reminiscence) to attain Nigeria’s first-ever FIFA World Cup objective towards Bulgaria in Dallas, USA on nineteenth June 1994.
The Rivers State -born George gained the distinguished UEFA Champions League with Ajax together with one other Nigerian, Kanu Nwankwo.