NFF appoints German Bruno Labbadia new Super Eagles coach

The Nigeria Football Federation has announced the appointment of a German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, as the new Super Eagles coach.

His appointment was announced in a tweet on Tuesday morning via the NFF’s X handle.

The statement read, “The Nigeria Football Federation has announced that it has reached an agreement with German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, to become the Head Coach of Nigeria’s senior men’s national team, Super Eagles.”

“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,” according to the federation’s General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi.

Labbadia becomes the 37th Head Coach of the Super Eagles after the resignation of former coach, Finidi George.

Bruno Labbadia, born 8 February 1966, is a German football manager and former player who played as a striker. He won the DFB-Pokal in 1989-90 with 1. FC Kaiserslautern and the Bundesliga in 1993-94 with FC Bayern Munich. He was also capped twice for the German team.

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.

Super Eagles will face the Benin Republic on 7th September and three days later will trade tackles with Rwanda in the 2025 African Nations Cup qualifier.