The Nigeria Football Federation have announced Bruno Labbadia as the new coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
The announcement was made in the early hours of Tuesday, August 27 on the official X page of the football body via a statement,
“German, Bruno Labbadia, becomes 37th Head Coach of the @NGSuperEagles”
“The Nigeria Football Federation has announced that it has reached an agreement with German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, to become the Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles.”
NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said in the early hours of Tuesday: “The NFF Executive Committee has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to appoint Mr. Bruno Labbadia as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles. The appointment is with immediate effect.”
Bruno Labbadia is a German coach with more than a handful of managerial experience mostly with German clubs which spans through 20 years.
Labbadia started his managerial career in 2003 as the coach of Darmstadt 98. He secured promotion with the club into the Regionalliga in his first season.
Since then, he has gone ahead to coach six other German clubs with the latest being VFB Stuttgart in the German Bundesliga.
Labbadia’s second coming to the club in December 2023 didn’t end well as he finished 16th on the of the season as the team narrowly escaped relegation.
The 58-year-old manager previously coached reigning Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen in the 2008/2009 season as he took the team to a 9th place finish.
Asides being a manager, Bruno Labbadia also played active football as a player. He played for only German teams including Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Kaiserslautern, Koln among others.
He won the German Bundesliga with Bayer Munich in 1994 and the DFB Pokal with Kaiserslautern in 1990.
The Super Eagles job will be Bruno Labbadia’s first engagement as a national team manager as he looks to erase the recent misfortunes of the team.
Bruno Labbadia replaces ex-international Finidi George who resigned from the job in June after four matches in charge.
The German first assignment will be to secure maximum points when the Super Eagles take on Benin Republic and Rwanda with the commencement of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifeiers next month.
