The Nigeria Football Federation has appointed former Super Eagles winger Finidi George as the new head coach of the nation’s senior men’s national team, Truth Live News can confirm.
The announcement was made in a statement on Monday, following the approval of the NFF Board, based on the recommendation of its Technical and Development Committee, to appoint the 52-year-old former Ajax Amsterdam and Real Betis forward.
Finidi George, who served as an assistant to the outgoing José Santos Peseiro for 20 months, had been acting as the interim coach after Peseiro’s departure following the Super Eagles’ impressive run to the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
George, during his interim tenure, oversaw two friendly matches in Morocco last month, where the team ended an 18-year winless streak against Ghana with a 2-1 victory before suffering a 0-2 loss to Mali.
“George, a member of the so-styled ‘Golden Generation’ that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Tunisia and emerged as the second most entertaining team in Nigeria’s debut at the FIFA World Cup finals in USA the same year, won 62 caps for Nigeria, including featuring at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals,” the NFF statement read partly
Reflecting on his illustrious playing career, the statement listed George’s achievements, which include “gold, silver and bronze medals from the 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2002 AFCON tournaments.”
One of George’s most memorable moments came when he “assisted Rashidi Yekini (of blessed memory) to score Nigeria’s first-ever FIFA World Cup goal against Bulgaria in Dallas, USA on 19th June 1994,” the statement noted.
The immediate task of the Super Eagles boss will be to guide the team to victory in two crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against South Africa and the Benin Republic in Uyo and Abidjan, respectively, within the next five weeks.
The NFF statement stressed that “the matches are must-win encounters, with the Super Eagles lagging behind in third place in Group C of the African campaign behind Rwanda and South Africa.”