The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has appointed Éric Chelle as the new head coach of Nigeria’s senior men’s national football team.
Chelle will be the third man to be in charge of the Super Eagles since the resignation of Jose Peseiro in March 2024.
His appointment was confirmed by the NFF on Tuesday, hours after president Ibrahim Gusau in another video had said the appointment would be soon.
“The Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation has endorsed the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee for the appointment of Mr. Éric Sékou Chelle as Head Coach of Nigeria’s senior men national football team, Super Eagles,” NFF said in a statement.
“At its meeting held in Abuja on Thursday, January 2, 2025, the NFF Technical and Development Sub-Committee had recommended the appointment of the former coach of the senior men national team of Mali as the new head coach of the Super Eagles. This recommendation was on Tuesday, 7th January endorsed by the NFF Executive Committee.”
According to the NFF president, Gusau, Chelle’s work will begin immediately with the home-based Super Eagles at the 2024 African Nations Championship in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda where Nigeria will be competing with 17 other countries from February 1-28.
“We are all concerned and we want whoever will take charge of the team must start immediately and that is why we also have the policy that it is the same coach that will manage the CHAN Eagles. So, you cannot have the opportunity to manage a team comprising of home-based players and at the end of the tournament, you come back to tell us that you don’t see one or two that can be injected into the senior national team.”
The Super Eagles B are currently in camp at the Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne under the tutelage of Remo Stars Coach Daniel Ogunmodede and his Rangers International Counterpart Fidelis Ilechukwu as well as goalkeeper trainer Olatunji Baruwa, who led the team through the qualifiers against Ghana.
Chelle, who won five caps for the Aiglons of Mali and coached clubs such as GS Consolat, FC Martigues, Boulogne and MC Oran, has been head Coach of the Aiglons since 2022.
At the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations finals, Chelle’s Mali came very close to a place in the semi-finals, losing to hosts and eventual winners Ivory 2-1 after extra time, after leading by a lone goal until the final minute of regulation time.
Another work cut out for him would be guiding the Super Eagles to earn a ticket to the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals, with the team currently languishing in fifth place in their qualifying group ahead of the next round of matches taking place in March.
