Former international Johnathan Akpoborie has lauded the appointment of Bruno Labbadia as new head coach of the Super Eagles.
Labbadia’s appointment was confirmed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Tuesday.
The German takes over from Finidi George, who left the post in June.
Akpoborie insisted that the NFF made the right choice.
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“Bruno was a prolific striker; we were adversaries in the Bundesliga. He played for many big clubs in Germany and is a very good player and a well-known coach there,” Akpoborie told Brila.net.
“Appointing him as the Super Eagles coach is an upgrade compared to the names that have handled the team in the past.”
The former striker also said Labbadia is capable of bringing out the best in the players.
“We were just hoping now, because football, you never can tell. But all those things apart, they’ve picked somebody that is capable of actually handling our national team for a very long time,” he added.
“This is somebody that can handle our national team, and I’m hoping that the chemistry between him and the players will come together, and we’ll see good football from Nigeria.”
By Adeboye Amosu
5 Comments
From his profile, Italian -German gaffer,Bruno Labbadia,have the experience,technical savvy, managerial acumen and strong charisma to manage our star-studded SUPER Eagles. Sceptics keep on dwelling on his lack of experience in African football and non involvement in national team management as reasons for not endorsing him. Pray who was Winifred Schafer before winning the AFCON with Cameroon? Who was Herve’ Renard before coming to Africa to win the AFCON twice with two different national teams? Some of those crying foul were those rooting for coaches Antonio Concecaio, Eric Chelle and Tom Saintfiet. You have to come to Africa first before getting the experience of African football. We hope and pray that Bruno Labbadia succeeds and we must all support him to restore the lost glory of the Super Eagles. The overbearing and domineering NFF Technical Committee should please allowed Labbadia the free hand to handle players selection. However,we observed that lot of precious time, energy,resources , unnecessary travelling and so on were wasted on recruiting a coach for the national team . Issues bothering on the duration of Labbadia’s contract ,his accomodaton as well as his foreign and local technical assistants should be sorted out immediately to enable us move forward.
For the first time Jonathan Akpoborie has this positive narrative about appointment of a Coach by NFF.
I will be relying on his review on this coach to hope for a successful world & nations cup qualification.
BRUNO LABADIA SHOULD QUICKLY CONSULT BERTI VOGT. AND GERNOT ROHR TO KNOW HOW HE CAN QUICKLY COPE, ADAPT TO AFRICAN STYLE OF PLAY, PATTERN, CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND MOSTLY THE TRICKY, MANIPULATION, DUBIOUS, SENTIMENT OF NFF.
IF NOT HE WILL FAIL WOEFULLY PAST ANY OTHER COACHES IN NIGERIA.
If and when this Mr. lagbaja does succeed, our appreciation should go to the NFF technical department for being deligent and success driven in their appointment of Mr. Lagbaja. The match will come up on the 7th and my other expectation is for Osimhen to carry his colleagues on his shoulders as what is important is securing the 3points on offer. Benin no reach. This is just my contribution to Akpoborie commentary. However, i need som3 sleep im sleeping ready
### MY ADVICE FOR BRUNO LABADDIA ###
@@ HE SHOULD QUICKLY CONSULT BERTI VOGT. AND GERNOT ROHR TO KNOW HOW HE CAN QUICKLY SETTLE, COPE, ADAPT TO AFRICAN STYLE OF PLAY, PATTERN, CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND MOSTLY THE TRICKY, MANIPULATION, LIES, DUBIOUS, SENTIMENT OF NFF.
IF NOT HE WILL FAIL WOEFULLY PAST ANY OTHER COACHES IN NIGERIA.
@** Work hand to hand with your Technical crews
@** Let the invitation of players base on merit
@** Don’t allow anybody FORCE/IMPOSE any players on you. Instead SCOUT for players & test them in Friendly matches
@** Invite local players that is ready to give foreign professional players a stiff competition(not the one to add to the number/surplus to requirements).
@** Always maintain your stand
@** Don’t allow anybody to be pushing you up and down.
@** Don’t be carried away with the club performance of players ONLY but base on PRESENT FORM & POTENTIAL
@** Do not tolerate INDISCIPLINE in to your team.
#** Do not invite players in order to pacify/please somebody (like local Coach Equavoen)
@** Encourage your players to be STRONG & MORE PHYSICAL when it comes to Africa football
@** Try to take advantage of newly introduced format: FIVE-SUBSTITUTION in a match(approved by CAF & FIFA) as an opportunity to test-run other players and MORE TECHNICAL in it.
@** Emphasize more on WING PLAY pattern for Super eagle.
@** Don’t be DECEIVED with the word EXPERIENCE, Instead make a RISK and search for a player like AMUNEKE(1994), AGHAHOWA & UDEZE(2000), YOBO & AIYEGBENI(2001), ENYEAMA(2002), IZOHO(2017), M.OKOYE(2019), NWABALI(2024), All these players mentioned make a breakthrough into Super eagle team as result of RISK their coach made.