Super Eagles new coach, Labbadia arrives Nigeria next week

• To succeed, you must be firm, Aigbovo tells German
Super Eagles’ new coach, Bruno Labbadia, is expected to arrive in the country in a few days, an official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said.

The NFF announced Labbadia as the Super Eagles new coach in the early hours of yesterday, making the former Eintracht Frankfurt star the 39th manager of the senior national team.

The official, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that Labbadia will come in to normalise his contract and immediately begin preparing the Super Eagles for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin Republic and Rwanda.

NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, and Secretary General, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, who are currently in Colombia, the venue of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, according to the source, are expected to return to the country within 48 hours to await Labbadia’s arrival.

Born in Darmstadt, Germany on February 8, 1966, Labbadia, who won two caps for Die Mannschaft in his playing days took him through clubs such as hometown 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, and 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 the 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.

Labbadia’s immediate challenge is to take charge of the three-time African champions for the two 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (September 7 in Uyo) and Rwanda (September 10 in Kigali), with four other matches to conclude the qualifying race following in the months of October and November.

Meanwhile, former Super Eagles goalkeeper, David Aigbovo, has charged Labbadia to be firm in his selection of players if he desires to succeed on the job.

The German coach became Nigeria’s third tactician this year, and as usual and expectedly too, his contract details have not been made known by his employers, the NFF.

The others who held that post this year after Jose Peseiro and Finidi George.

Speaking with The Guardian shortly after the announcement, Aigbovo, who was part of the Super Eagles squad to the Four Nations LG Cup in 1991, said: “To me, the decision to bring in another foreign coach to the Super Eagles is good because our local coaches have not done well with the team.

“One of the problems we have had in recent times is the inability of our coaches to stand firm in their team selection. As a foreign coach, I expect Bruno to stand firm and wave off unwarranted influences from outsiders.

“I know that the Super Eagles are already in a very tight corner for the 2026 World Cup, but anything can still happen.

It will be a huge loss for our football if Nigeria fails to make the party to the next World Cup to be co-hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico,” Aigbovo stated.

This will be the 58-year-old German’s first job outside Germany. He will spend the rest of the year focusing on qualifying the Super Eagles for the next Cup of Nations finals, which will be hosted by Morocco in late 2025.

Nigeria are the top seed in a group that also includes Libya, with the top two teams qualifying.

But from next March, the German will have a much tougher task as Nigeria resumes the journey to qualify for the World Cup.

The Super Eagles are winless after their opening four games in the African qualifying Group C and sit fifth out of six teams, although they still have another six matches to play in their bid to win the group and take a berth at the 2026 finals in North America.