Super Eagles new coach, Labbadia arrives Nigeria next week

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Super Eagles’ new coach, Bruno Labbadia, is expected to arrive in the country in a few days, an official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said.

The NFF announced Labbadia as the Super Eagles new coach in the early hours of yesterday, making the former Eintracht Frankfurt star the 39th manager of the senior national team.

The official, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that Labbadia will come in to normalise his contract and immediately begin preparing the Super Eagles for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin Republic and Rwanda.

NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, and Secretary General, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, who are currently in Colombia, the venue of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, according to the source, are expected to return to the country within 48 hours to await Labbadia’s arrival.

Born in Darmstadt, Germany on February 8, 1966, Labbadia, who won two caps for Die Mannschaft in his playing days took him through clubs such as hometown team Darmstadt 98, Hamburger SV, FC Kaiserslautern, Bayern Munich, FC Cologne, Werder Bremen, Armenia Bielefeld, and Karlsruher SC, triumphed in the German Bundesliga with Bayern Munich as a player in 1994.

He coached famous names Hertha Berlin and VfB Stuttgart this decade, and previously, VfL Wolfsburg, Hamburger SV, and Bayer Leverkusen, among others, and holds a UEFA Pro License.

He is only the sixth German, after Karl-Heinz Marotzke (who had two stints between 1970 and 1974), Gottlieb Göller (1981), Manfred Höner (1988-1989), Berti Vogts (2007-2008) and Gernot Rohr (2016-2021) to lead the Super Eagles. Höner led the Eagles to the runner-up position at the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations, while Rohr