Tag: Labbadia

• By Temi-Joshua Nwabude

Prominent sports administrators, Barrister  Chris Green and  Alhaji Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe, have both  condemned the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) over the poor handling of the recruitment of a new coach for the Super Eagles after German coach Bruno Labbadia  rejected his announcement  before  both parties agreed on a signed contract.

Labbadia over the weekend reportedly  turned down the Nigerian coaching job, stating there was no agreement between him and the NFF and  this has provoked a wide spread of reactions amongst Nigerians  and sports stakeholders.

Speaking on the development, Barrister Green, a former chairman of the NFF Technical Committee, said that the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF was wrong  to have announced Labbadia  without  revealing the contract details.

“The NFF didn’t tell us if he  signed the contract, worth of the contract  and the amount he was  going to collect and other conditions incidental to such appointment and  I started to wonder as somebody who had  been there before because it is not the style; it all  shrouded in such secrecy  that one will not know if actually,  the technical committee did recommend that or he was head hunted by the headships of NFF,” Green,  currently the  Commissioner of Sports in Rivers State, said on Brila FM. “It is smacks lack of professionalism and hearing that the contract would not go through because there are issues bothering on payment of tax or whatsoever .

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 “I begin to wonder why  you announced that a coach had been taken and it all seemed all good that everything had been done but you have not dotted your I and crossed your T only for us to hear it was not a done deal.”

Speaking on the same matter, Gara-Gombe  said the issue of  getting a Super Eagles coach has turned to another  national embarrassment: “This  is one embarrassment  too many  and this is unacceptable in our sports.

  “I am going to put every single embarrassment that is happening in our sports at the door step of the Minister of Sports Development .

“This is an issue the Minister of Sports Development  and NFA (NFF)  has been working on for  a long time but failure to employ a coach for the Super Eagles is just a self-indictment on the minster and also the NFA (NFF).”

Meanwhile, the NFF have since named Austin Eguavoen  as an interim Super Eagles coach ahead of the 2025 AFCON qualifiers against Benin and Rwanda on September 7 and 10  respectively. 

German coach Bruno Labbadia has turned down Nigeria’s offer as head coach of the Super Eagles.

This is coming four days after Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Ibrahim Gusau went public with a statement on Tuesday via X to announce the agreement with the former striker.    

According to the German sports platform, Kicker, the 58-year-old had been negotiating with the NFF for a week and, decided against a contract on Friday.

Labbadia said he had largely reached agreement on the key financial details with NFF chiefs, but organizational questions were still open.

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The hasty announcement by the NFF’s leadership is said to have been one of the reasons why Labbadia canceled on Friday, in addition to the details that still need to be clarified.

The talks about a commitment began last weekend and were initially very productive – but the commitment or even a signature from the coach, as reported by the association, never came.

Labbadia, who has a reputation in the Bundesliga as a man for particularly difficult cases after successful rescue missions at Hamburger SV, VfL Wolfsburg, and Hertha BSC, among others, was attracted by the challenging task in Nigeria.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) announced that it has reached an agreement with German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, to become the Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles.

A statement by Ademola Olajire, NFF’s Director of Communications, quoted NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, as saying in the early hours of Tuesday that Labbadia’s appointment was with immediate effect.

 “The NFF Executive Committee has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to appoint Bruno Labbadia as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles.

 “The appointment is with immediate effect,” Sanusi said.

He 58-year-old gaffer was born in Darmstadt, Germany on Feb. 8, 1966.

Labbadia won two caps for Die Mannschaft in his playing career that took him through clubs such as home-town team Darmstadt 98, Hamburger SV, and FC Kaiserslautern.

Others include; Bayern Munich, FC Cologne, Werder Bremen, Armenia Bielefeld and Karlsruhe SC.

He triumphed in the German Bundesliga with Bayern Munich as a player in 1994. 

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He coached famous names 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. 

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 (Sept. 7 in Uyo) and Rwanda (Sept. 10 in Kigali).

Four other matches would conclude the qualifying race following in the months of October and November.

Past  Super Eagles’ Coaches 

John Finch (England) – 1949

Daniel Anyiam (Nigeria) – 1954-1956; 1964-1965

Les Courtier (England) – 1956-1960

Moshe Beit Halevi (Israel) – 1960-1961

George Vardar (Hungary) – 1961-1963

Joey Blackwell (England) – 1963 – 1964

József Ember (Hungary) – 1965-1968

Sabino Barinaga (Spain) – 1968-1969

Peter ‘Eto’ Amaechina (Nigeria) – 1969-1970

Karl-Heinz Marotzke (Germany) – 1970-1971; 1974

Jorge Penna (Brazil) – 1972-1973

Jelisavčić ‘Father Tiko’ Tihomir (Yugoslavia) – 1974-1978

Otto Glória (Brazil) – 1979-1982

Gottlieb Göller (Germany) – 1981

Adegboye Onigbinde (Nigeria) – 1983-1984; 2002

Chris Udemezue (Nigeria) – 1984-1986

Patrick Ekeji (Nigeria) – 1985

Paul Hamilton (Nigeria) – 1987; 1989

Manfred Höner (Germany) – 1988-1989

Clemens Westerhof (Netherlands) – 1989-1994

Amodu Shaibu (Nigeria) – 1994-1995;1996-1997; 2001-2002; 2008-2010

Johannes Bonfrere (Netherlands) – 1995-1996; 1999-2001

Philippe Troussier (France) – 1997

Monday Sinclair (Nigeria) – 1997-1998

Bora Milutinović (Yugoslavia) – 1998

Thijs Libregts (Netherlands) – 1999

Christian Chukwu (Nigeria) – 2002-2005

Augustine Eguavoen (Nigeria) – 2005-2007; 2010; 2022

Berti Vogts (Germany) – 2007-2008

Lars Lagerbäck (Sweden) – 2010

Samson Siasia (Nigeria) – 2010-2011; 2016

Stephen Keshi (Nigeria) – 2011-2014; 2015

Sunday Oliseh (Nigeria) – 2015-2016

Gernot Rohr (Germany) – 2016-2021

José Peseiro (Portugal) – 2022-2024

Finidi George (Nigeria) – 2024

Bruno Labbadia (Germany) – 2024-