The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will pick a new coach for the senior national team of Nigeria from a three man shortlist drawn up by the technical committee, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Nigeria navigated the AFCON qualifiers with interim coach Austine Eguavoen handling them through a successful campaign, but he is now expected to return back to his role as the technical director of the NFF.
Ahead of the start of the world cup qualifiers, the NFF have stepped up preparations for the appointment of a new coach, who is expected to be appointed before the end of this month to enable him prepare for the world cup qualifiers game against Rwanda in March.
We can exclusively report that former coach of Mali Eric Chelle, who became famous for having water poured on his head during his team’s AFCON defeat to host Ivory Coast in the quarter final.
Presently the coach of Algerian side MC Oran, Chelle we gathered is in a three man list that also includes a German and a Portuguese coach , whose identity were not revealed to us as at the time of this report. All three coaches have all handled teams on the African continent.
During his time as the coach of Mali, Chelle’s team won 13, drew 5 and only lost three times in 21 games. A poor start to the world cup qualifiers which includes a 1-3 loss to Ghana at home, a draw away to Madagascar and Central Africa Republic respectively led to his exit with just a win which came against Chad.
Born in France to a French father and a Malian mother, Chelle represented Mali at senior level during his playing days after having a change of nationality approved by FIFA.
The task before him if he gets appointed as coach of the Super Eagles will be to help the team pick up their first win in the qualifiers after three draws and a defeat. They are presently 5th in their 6 team group four points behind the leaders Rwanda.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
