Sports
NFF appoints German Bruno Labbadia as Super Eagles head coach
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has announced the appointment of a German, Bruno Labbadia as Head Coach of the country’s senior men football national team, the Super Eagles.
The position had been vacant since the exit of Finidi George who managed the team for just a month following the departure of Portuguese gaffer, Jose Peseiro.
Secretary General of the NFF, Mohammed Sanusi made the announcement on Tuesday morning, stating arhat an agreement had been reached with the German.
Sanusi said: “The 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.”
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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 clubs like 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.
Recall that Höner led the Eagles to runners-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 Septemberin Uyo) and Rwanda (Tuesday, 10th Septemberin Kigali), with four other matches to conclude the qualifying race following in the months of October and November.
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