NPFL winner Finidi George deserves a shot at Super Eagles job after Peseiro’s departure

Following two years of understudying Jose Peseiro at the helm of affairs, the Enyimba coach has proven he can manage a top team like the Super Eagles.

My good friend Jose Peseiro always felt disrespected by the management of the Nigeria Football Federation. From when he took the job, he was expected to prove himself. There were doubters along the journey, but he held on to reach the Africa Cup of Nations final in Abidjan last month.

When we first met during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Peseiro told me that he believed Nigeria had the squad and the talent to win the Afcon. When he took the job, we had recently lost to Tunisia in the Round of 16 at Cameroon 2021 and failed to beat Ghana over two legs to qualify for Qatar. Confidence was low.

Hence, there was a lot of pressure on him. But the way the NFF handled his contract and payments left him sad. “It is the worst contract I have ever received,” he told me. But his hope was to win the Afcon to assuage his ill-treatment at the hands of his employers.

He announced the end of his contract last week via social media. But I had seen it coming. From our phone call two weeks ago, I felt he had no desire to continue. He told me he needed rest and to think about his future. He also said that the NFF needed to think about it deeply if they wanted to keep him or not.

I guess he made the decision to quit knowing that there would be no change in the operating method of the NFF. The same organization under Ibrahim Gusau that said it would run a social media poll to decide if the fans wanted them to retain his services cannot be trusted to do things with logic.

So, we have to say goodbye to Jose Peseiro, a man who I had the opportunity to have coffee with alongside his wife Fatima in Doha. They were such a lovely couple, and it was a good opportunity to see him away from the game. A man that took the Super Eagles back to an Afcon final after 11 years. Obrigado, Jose. Good luck for the future.

A case for Finidi George

The Afcon success of Emerse Fae as coach of Cote d’Ivoire has brought back the clamour for a Nigerian to take over the job of head coach of the Super Eagles once again. We had great success under Stephen Keshi, winning the Afcon and reaching the Round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup. Despite all that was thrown at him, Keshi managed to achieve great things.

I, therefore, call on the NFF and the Ministry of Sports to look no further than Finidi George to take over the role of Head Coach of the Super Eagles. He has proven himself as a top coach when he led Enyimba to their ninth NPFL title in only his second year in charge.

Despite the lack of funds and the salary situation faced by the players, George took them to the NFPL Play-Offs against Rivers United and Remo Stars thereby cementing his profile as an excellent manager of men and little resource.

His playing career was also filled with laurels. George was the first Nigerian player, alongside Nwankwo Kanu, to win the UEFA Champions League with Ajax in 1995. He played a starring role for Ajax in their run, delivering key passes from the right wing.

He also won three Dutch League titles as a player, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup with Ajax.

Before that, he was a part of the Super Eagles that won the 1994 Afcon in Tunisia. He scored at Nigeria’s first World Cup in 1994 and played also at the 1998 World Cup in France.

George has been a member of Peseiro’s team since the Portuguese took charge. He understands the current team and knows what is needed to make it better. He also understands the local league and should be able to find missing pieces to make squad places more competitive. After all, he started his journey as a player from Sharks of Por Harcourt before moving directly to Ajax due to his quality.

Unlike some of the other candidates that have been listed in recent days, he is an actively working coach. We always say that some members of the 1994 squad believe it is their right to coach the Super Eagles. But here is someone that has taken a job locally after obtaining UEFA coaching qualifications in Spain and led his team to the domestic championship. Which of the other candidates has had such success at the top of the game as he has?

It would be a misnomer to not consider Finidi George for the Super Eagles job. We need continuity and he can offer that while pushing out the dead weight. My only fear is that he would be treated as shabbily as the others before him by a system that has failed to work over the years.

But if there’s something that Finidi will do, it is to get on with his job without complaining, because success on the field will be his reward. He did it with Enyimba as a coach, he did it with Ajax as a player, he won the Afcon and qualified Nigeria for its first World Cup, he can handle the Super Eagles today.