A former board member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has opened up on the role celebrated Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho played in the appointment of his country man Jose Peseiro as the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria.
Peseiro has come under fire after Nigeria’s poor start to the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup with two draws in their first two games against Lesotho and Zimbabwe respectively. Both games ended in a 1-1 draw.
Since his appointment as coach of the Nigerian team he has lost 60% of the games he has handled as coach, prompting a lot of questions about the rationale behind his appointment in the first place.
He came third behind Philip Cocu and Ernesto Valverde when coaches were interviewed for the Super Eagles job over a year ago. How he got the nod to handle the team has now been revealed by a former football chief who was part of the decision makers at that time.
” When we interviewed coaches for the jobs, Peseiro didn’t do well like the duo of Cocu and Valverde. His use of english was horrible. Cocu fits our budget perfectly but the inclusion of Mourinho as one of his referees worked for Peseiro. Valverde was too expensive for us”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com in an exclusive chat.
” We called Mourinho and spoke with him. The then NFF president Amaju Pinnick and former minister for Sports Sunday Dare were so excited with speaking with Mourinho and it clinched it for Peseiro”, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
