The Minister of Sports, Senator John Enoh, has reassured Nigerian football enthusiasts that the senior men’s national team, the Super Eagles, will have a new coach appointed within the next one or two weeks.
Since the expiration of Jose Peseiro’s contract after the Africa Cup of Nations in February, the Super Eagles have been without a permanent coach. Finidi George, one of Peseiro’s assistants, temporarily led the team in their last two friendly matches against Ghana and Mali.
However, the Minister emphasized that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will soon announce the appointment of a permanent coach for the team.
“Unfortunately, the senior national team doesn’t have a coach. We played two freindlies and had just Finidi George oversee those two matches,” Senator Enoh said in excusive interview on Channels Televisions Sports Tonight on Thursday.
“The first responsibility of getting a coach lies with the NFF and I have been in touch with the NFF because I think Nigerians didn’t expect that after AFCON and after the contract with coach Peseiro came to an end and wasn’t renewed, that it will take as long and not have a coach yet.
“But NFF is conscious and mindful that our next qualifiers in June, what I can assure is that in the next one or two weeks at the most that the senior national team will have a new coach.
“My engagement and interactions with NFF suggest to me that NFF is conscious of expectations of Nigerians, they are conscious that they cannot afford to lead the country to another non-appearance at the World Cup, the NFF knows what Nigeria lost by not being at the last World Cup and they are working very hard to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
The Super Eagles failed to qualify for the previous World Cup and have begun their journey in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with disappointing results, drawing matches against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
The Minister acknowledged this start as unsatisfactory and emphasized that Nigeria cannot afford another World Cup absence, considering the setbacks the nation has faced.
“I think we have not had a tremendous start, it’s a shaky one and therefore there is a milage to cover given that we didn’t go for the last World Cup. We cannot afford not to go for the next and therefore everything needs to be done.
“Coming after AFCON and coming after we have had a tremendous show somewhat, I think everybody expects that we should be able to consolidate on that and take it from there,” Enoh said.