After much delay, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) eventually named Finidi George the new Super Eagles head coach.
Finidi replaced Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro, who led the Eagles to a second-place finish at the AFCON 2023 in Côte d’Ivoire.
His first assignments would be the double-header 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin Republic in June.
Ahead of the crucial qualifiers, Completesports.com‘s JAMES AGBEREBI lists seven feats achieved by Nigerian coaches as Super Eagles handlers that can motivate Finidi.
1. Stephen Keshi (2013 AFCON Title Success)
After the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2012 AFCON under Samson Siasia, the late Stephen Keshi replaced his former teammate.
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Keshi’s major task was to qualify the Eagles for the AFCON 2013 in South Africa, which he achieved.
After a shaky start to the tournament, Keshi eventually led the Eagles to emerge as AFCON champions, becoming the first-ever Nigerian indigenous coach to achieve the feat.
2. Stephen Keshi (2014 FIFA World Cup Qualification)
Keshi followed up his AFCON 2013 triumph by guiding the Super Eagles to clinch the ticket to the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup.
After finishing tops in a group that had Malawi, Kenya, and Namibia (winning three and drawing three of their six group games without defeat), the Eagles progressed into the playoffs round.
In the playoffs, Keshi’s Eagles defeated Ethiopia home and away to qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
3. Amodu Shuaibu (2002 FIFA World Cup Qualification)
The Super Eagles almost missed out on qualification for the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup, no thanks to costly defeats to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Following the disappointing defeats, Dutch coach Johannes Bonfrere was sacked and replaced by Amodu Shuaibu.
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It was Shuaibu’s third stint as Eagles coach after he was first given the job in 1994.
With three games left to play (against Liberia, Sudan, and Ghana), Shuaibu needed to guide the Eagles to win all three games and hoped leaders Liberia drop points in their remaining three games.
The Eagles went on to win all their three remaining games while Liberia lost two of their last three fixtures, which handed the Nigerian team the ticket.
Shuaibu became the first-ever Nigerian coach to qualify the Eagles for the FIFA senior men’s World Cup. But before the World Cup finals, NFF replaced Amodu with it’s Head of Technical Department, Adegboye Onigbinde, to lead the team to Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup.
4. Amodu Shuaibu (2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification)
Shuaibu repeated his 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification feat as he once again guided the Eagles to seal the ticket for the 2010 edition in South Africa.
The 1990 Cup Winners’ Cup-winning coach with BCC Lions replaced Berti Vogts in 2008 and took the team through the qualifiers.
The Eagles almost missed out on qualification after a 2-2 draw against Tunisia in Abuja, which saw the north Africans ahead in the group based on head-to-head.
For the Eagles to scale through, they needed to win their final two games against Mozambique and Kenya and hoped Tunisia drop points also in their last two games.
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Shuaibu led the Eagles to beat Mozambique in Abuja and Kenya in Nairobi.
For Tunisia, they beat Kenya in Tunisia but lost to Mozambique away which saw them lose the ticket to Shuaibu’s Super Eagles.
Amodu again missed out on the World Cup finals party as the NFF dropped him after the Super Eagles finished third at AFCON 2010 in Angola and hired Swedish coach, Lars Lagerback, to lead the team to 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
5. Amodu Shuaibu (Secured Africa’s First Win At FIFA Confederation Cup)
The FIFA Confederations Cup (now defunct) was first staged in 1992 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The first African team to participate in the tournament was Côte d’Ivoire after they won the AFCON in 1992.
Unfortunately, the Elephants lost their two games in the four-team tournament (4-0 to Argentina and 5-2 to the USA). Argentina beat hosts Saudi Arabia 3-1 in the final.
The next FIFA Confederations Cup was also held in Saudi Arabia, and this time the Super Eagles, under Shuaibu, represented Africa in the tournament which was now contested by six teams (Nigeria, Argentina, Denmark, Japan, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia).
Shuaibu’s Eagles faced Japan in their opening Group B game and won 3-0, thus making him the first coach to lead an African team to win a game at the Confederations Cup.
The Eagles finished fourth after losing 5-4 on penalties in the third-place match, while Denmark beat Argentina 2-0 in the final.
6. Salisu Yusuf (2018 CHAN First Runner-up)
Salisu Yusuf was in charge of the home-based Super Eagles that featured at the 2018 Championship (CHAN) in Morocco.
The home-based Eagles’ hitherto best performance at the CHAN was a third-place finish in 2014 in South Africa.
Yusuf surpassed that feat as he led his team to the final.
After a 0-0 draw with Rwanda, the home-based Eagles beat Libya and Mozambique to progress into the quarter-finals.
In the quarter-finals, the home-based Eagles beat Angola 2-1 after extra time, edged Sudan 1-0 in the semi-finals before losing 4-0 to hosts Morocco in the final.
7. Adegboye Onigbinde (1984 AFCON First Runner-up)
Adegboye Onigbinde became the Eagles coach in 1982 and qualified the team for the 1984 AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire.
Onigbinde had greats like the late Stephen Keshi, Peter Rufai, late Rashidi Yekini, late Muda Lawal, late Yisa Shofoluwe, Ademola Adeshina, Henry Nwosu, Tarila Okorowanta, among others, in his team.
Drawn in Group B with Ghana, Malawi, and Algeria, Onigbinde led the Eagles to finish second and qualified for the semi-finals.
After defeating Egypt 8-7 on penalty shootout, after regulation time ended 2-2 in the semi-finals, the Eagles faced Cameroon in the final and lost 3-1.
Despite the defeat, Onigbinde became the first Nigerian coach to guide the Eagles to the final of the AFCON.
