May 15, (THEWILL) – After originally parting ways with the Portuguese manager as Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro has been named Nigeria’s new head coach for the second time.
The NFF made the announcement in a statement posted on Sunday, stating that the appointment is contingent on the signature of agreed-upon agreements. The Federation also indicated that the Portuguese will begin working immediately.
The statement read: ”The Nigeria Football Federation on Sunday announced the appointment of Mr Jose Santos Peseiro as the new Head Coach of the Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles. The appointment is with immediate effect, subject to the signing of agreed terms between the NFF and Mr Peseiro.
“José Vitor dos Santos Peseiro, 62 last month, is a Portuguese who played as a striker in his days and has wide and varied experience coaching top Clubs and National Teams across four different continents, namely Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
“An educationist with a degree in physical education/sports sciences, Peseiro has top-level coaching qualifications/training, and has coached at Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Panathinaikos, Rapid Bucharest, Sporting Braga, Victoria Gumaraes, Al-Hilal, Al-Wahda, Al-Ahly Cairo, Sharjah FC and Real Madrid (assistant coach during the Galacticos era), as well as serving as Head Coach of the Saudi Arabian and Venezuelan National Teams.
“Peseiro is expected to lead out the Super Eagles for the first time during the upcoming tour of the United States of America, during which the three-time African champions will slug it out with Mexico and Ecuador ‘A’ Teams in prestige friendlies.
“The Eagles will tango with the El Tri at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, State of Texas on Saturday, 28th May before flying to New Jersey to confront Ecuador at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison on Thursday, 2nd June.”
THEWILL recalls that the NFF had previously revealed that after consulting with renowned ex-EPL managers Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho they had settled for Peseiro as Nigeria’s new substantive manager on the eve of the commencement of this year’s TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Being so close to the kickoff of the competition for the biggest prize in African football, the interim coach of the Super Eagles at the time, Augustine Eguavoen, was to remain in charge of the team while Peseiro was to join the crew as an observer.
The plan was that Peseiro was to acclimate himself with football on the continent, the talents in the squad and the football atmosphere around the team as they competed in the tournament in Cameroon before the Portuguese took over after AFCON to lead the team to the playoffs and onward to Qatar.
But, soon after Nigeria emerged the best team in the group stage of AFCON, especially with the impressive performance against the Pharaohs of Egypt, the NFF acceded to calls for Eguavoen to be made permanent coach.
Peseiro, who had been brought in after a lengthy process of finding a replacement for fired coach Gernot Rohr, was thanked for his time and never formally appointed.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
