Bruno Labbadia, becomes 37th Head Coach of the Super Eagles

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 National Team, Super Eagles. NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said in the early hours of Tuesday: “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.” 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 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 (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. LIST OF SUPER EAGLES’ COACHES IN HISTORY 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-?

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