The decision of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to appoint 58 year old German coach Bruno Labbadia as the new coach of the senior national team of Nigeria came as a surprise to a lot of people, who have closely followed the process of getting a replacement for erstwhile coach Finidi George, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Shortly after the decision to let go of Finidi following a poor showing in the world cup qualifiers, the NFF handed the task to the technical committee to entertain applications for the job ahead of the start of the qualifiers for the AFCON.
Three names were shortlisted for the job in Steve McClaren, Eric Chelle and Tom Saintfeit with Herve Renard standing alone as the preferred choice and the aforementioned trio as fall back plan.
Renard rejected the offer made by the NFF and not even a lucrative offer close to his financial demands swayed him into accepting the offer. The two time AFCON winner was obviously not interested in the role despite his representative telling the NFF something else.
Chelle was picked as the next option but he was immediately rejected by the powers in the NFF despite meeting with Gusau in France. A long time admirer of Saintfeit Gusau set the wheel in motion for the Belgian to be the next coach.
Discussions were held with the former coach of Gambia but his choice just like that of Chelle was rejected by forces beyond Gusau, which includes the minister for sports senator John Enoh this time around.
Not to be seen as being incompetent, Gusau immediately sent a contract proposal to former coach of Sweden Janne Andersson and stamped him the choice for the job. However the man who handled Sweden for seven years toyed with the NFF by constantly altering the planned date for his resumption.
He initially picked resuming after the games in September, but later switched to after the games in November without giving the NFF any strong reasons although they had a disagreement over some terms of the deal which led to his decision to walk away from talks.
At this stage, when all was set for Austine Eguavoen the technical director of the NFF to prosecute the games against Benin Republic and Rwanda respectively in the AFCON qualifiers, the minister and Gusau played a fast one on the board members of the football house.
Using a four man shortlist of Bruno Labbadia, Aitor Karanka, Fabio Cannavaro and Gustavo Poyet. Labbadia got the nod on the strength that he has coached teams in difficult situations to safety in Germany, so much that it earned him the nickname “The Firefighter”.
His choice was unpopular when it was revealed to the board members, and the back and forth dragged late into the night before the decision to announce him as the new coach of the Super Eagles, despite the fact that few grey areas are still untouched.
It is believed that the coach wants a running two years deal, which will be an initial one year with the option of another year while the NFF wants an initial ten months deal that terminates after the next AFCON where his position will be open to change.
Also there is still no agreement on where he will live and the composition of his backroom staff. Even a formal signing of contract hasn’t been done yet as only a deal was agreed in principle with Labbadia, who was first contacted four days ago. On Thursday the 22nd of August precisely.
Like veteran sports journalist Mitchell Obi said on a Whatsapp group only time will tell if the choice is the best and the heavily talked about expatriate coach as replacement for Finidi George, as said by the NFF in the communique announcing the exit for Finidi as coach.
“Like Lagbaja, your face was fully clothed to obstruct your view of this new coach. Very unlike you, no hint came from your end. Truly a thief in the night.. and you know what happens to such thieves…they go as they come..just two games like Finidi, we would judge if the wait was worth it. For now all those who promised us a world class foreign coach should throw away their loin cloth and dance for free in the market. Shame is their name”, Mitchell the master like he is called wrote in reaction to how Mowiz missed the appointment of the new coach.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
