In June, the Super Eagles were at crossroads – they languished second from bottom of a 2026 World Cup qualifying group and Finidi George quit as coach barely a month after he was appointed.
The NFF then embarked on another search for a foreign coach for the Super Eagles and just when you thought they had finally found their man – Bruno Labbadia – the German walked out on the national team with barely two weeks to important 2025 AFCON qualifiers against Benin and Rwanda.
NFF technical director Augustine Eguavoen was always going to be option B in the event that a foreign coach will not be in place to lead the Eagles in the qualifiers and that was what it eventually came to be.
It was the fourth stint of ‘Cerezo’ as Super Eagles coach and he underlined his experience by beating Benin 3-0 in Uyo, before holding Rwanda to a scoreless draw in Kigali three days.
These were decent results by any standards that even some of those who had yet to forgive the coach for the Super Eagles missing out on the 2022 World Cup are now in the vanguard of those who now want him to continue in temporary charge of the team.
He was smart not to change the 3-4-3 formation as well as the personnel that served coach Jose Pesiero well at the 2023 AFCON in February.
And unlike in June, when the players were on holidays after a hectic season in Europe, the majority of them were battle ready coming from pre-season training with their European clubs.
Sports Minister John Enoh was on national television this week to say Eguavoen’s stop-gap appointment has bought the NFF some more time to conclude on the engagement of a foreign coach for the Super Eagles.
As much as ‘Cerezo’ has got the NFF as well as the Super Eagles out of a lurch, the bigger picture is for a substantive coach to begin to work with the team ahead of the resumption of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in March 2025.
Eguavoen as NFF technical director can still play a big role as the main guide of the new coach for the remaining four AFCON qualifiers this year, so that the new man will not be a total stranger to the team by the time the World Cup qualifiers come around again.
The Super Eagles are second from bottom in their World Cup qualifying group with a mere three points from four rounds of matches.
Therefore, there won’t be any margin for error in the remaining six World Cup qualifiers and so the need for the new coach to get going by the next round of the AFCON qualifiers next month.
And then by March, the Super Eagles will be a more formidable force ready to against most expectations turn their fortunes around on the road to the 2026 World Cup.
The bigger picture remains – qualification to the 2026 World Cup.
