The Board of the Nigeria Football Federation on Monday, April 29, appointed former Super Eagles winger, Finidi George as Head Coach of the Senior Men National Football Team, Super Eagles.
George spent 20 months as assistant to José Santos Peseiro before the Portuguese voluntarily left the post after clinching Africa Cup of Nations runner-up position at Cote d’Ivoire 2023.
He then took charge of the squad in interim capacity during two friendly matches in Morocco last month.
His squad beat Ghana 2-1 in the first match, ending an 18-year winless streak against the Black Stars, but then lost 0-2 to Mali in the second game.
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George was a member of the so-styled ‘Golden Generation’ that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Tunisia that emerged as the second most entertaining team in Nigeria’s debut at the FIFA World Cup finals in the USA the same year.
He won 62 caps for Nigeria, including featuring at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals. He also won gold, silver and bronze medals from the 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2002 AFCON tournaments.
The 52-year-old former Ajax Amsterdam and Real Betis forward made a scoring debut for Nigeria in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Burkina Faso at the National Stadium, Lagos on 27th July 1991.
He assisted Rashidi Yekini (of blessed memory) to score Nigeria’s first-ever FIFA World Cup goal against Bulgaria in Dallas, USA on 19th June 1994.
George had scored the goal that took Nigeria to that FIFA World Cup debut, when he put Nigeria ahead against hosts Algeria in a crucial qualifier in Algiers on 8th October 1993. The match eventually ended 1-1 and earned Nigeria a ticket to the finals in America.
George’s immediate task will be to guide the Super Eagles to victory in two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against South Africa and the Benin Republic in Uyo and Abidjan respectively, in a little over five weeks.
The matches are must-win encounters, with the Super Eagles lagging in third place in Group C of the African campaign behind Rwanda and South Africa.
