Former Super Eagles assistant coach Usman Abdallah made a surprising claim that no Nigerian coach is qualified for the managerial role of the country’s senior men’s national team.
Abdallah’s statement follows the Nigeria Football Federation’s announcement of considering a foreign coach after Finidi George’s resignation last month.
Since the team’s inception, 27 coaches have managed the Eagles, with 10 being Indigenous coaches. Finidi was the last to lead the team, which has been without a head coach since he resigned in June.
Finidi stepped down as head coach of the three-time African champions following the NFF’s announcement of appointing a foreign technical adviser. This decision came after public outcry over the team’s poor performances, including a shocking defeat to Benin Republic in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers last month.
As the federation continues its search for the next coach, reports suggest they have approached Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro for a possible return and are also considering Frenchman Herve Renard. Abdallah, who served as an assistant coach under Peseiro, is unfazed by the potential backlash from his comments.
He maintained that Indigenous coaches are not qualified for the job.
“It doesn’t bother me whether the NFF is considering bringing Jose Peseiro back or if they want to hire Hervé Renard as the Eagles coach as long as they can afford to pay their salaries,” he said.
“The issue is, I have heard people say they don’t want us to spend money on the foreign coach but show me a coach qualified for the Eagles job who is a Nigerian whether home or abroad. The fact is we don’t have it.
“The only person we have is Salisu Yusuf, who a lot of people don’t want because of what happened in the past, but I don’t want to argue about that. Nigerian coaches have always been serving as assistants and none of us can argue that we were better than those we’ve worked with.”
However, the former Enyimba gaffer criticized the NFF for allowing foreign coaches to bring their assistants.
“Appointing Peseiro or whoever is no issue, but why allow them to come with their assistants when some of us have always been named?
“How do we tap from their experience and grow to become the national team coaches? This is the mistake the federation has always made, and they need to correct that.”
The NFF aims to resolve the issue promptly, as Nigeria hopes to improve their World Cup qualifiers performance after a poor start, claiming just three points from a possible 12 and sitting fifth in their six-team qualifying group.