WHEN news filtered in that the Nigeria Football Federation had appointed Eric Chelle as the Super Eagles coach, I thought some mischief makers were at it again on social media. An African coach for the Super Eagles? Surely, this must be fake news. But as reality set in, so did the gravity of this unprecedented decision.
Let’s call a spade a spade – this appointment is either going to be a masterstroke or a catastrophic failure. There’s no middle ground.
Nigeria, a football powerhouse that has produced legends like Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Victor Ikepba and Mikel Obi, has never appointed a fellow African to lead its national team. The reasons aren’t far-fetched.
We Nigerians carry our football pride like a badge of honor. Even when FIFA rankings suggest otherwise, the average Nigerian football fan believes we’re the continent’s best. It’s this same pride that makes the appointment of a Malian coach feel like settling for less. It’s like sending a Volkswagen to compete in a Formula One race.
The timing couldn’t be more critical. The Super Eagles are facing crucial World Cup qualifiers, and our qualification hopes hang by a thread. We need to win our next three games – not draw, not play beautiful football, but win. For a football-crazy nation that treats World Cup qualification as a birthright, missing out on two consecutive tournaments would be nothing short of a national tragedy.
To be fair to the NFF, their hands were somewhat tied by financial constraints. The harsh reality is that we can’t afford top-tier coaches like Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho. But here’s where I have a bone to pick with the federation – if we couldn’t secure a grade B foreign coach, why not look inward?
I’ve consistently argued that if we can’t attract coaches of considerable international pedigree, we should invest in our own. Give a local coach the same support, the same contract terms, the same respect we offer foreign coaches. At least then, we’d be building our own coaching capacity while saving valuable foreign exchange.
The NFF reportedly had Herve Renard and Steve McClaren in their sights but balked at their financial demands. Renard, in particular, would have been perfect for the job. Here’s a coach who turned Zambia, yes, Zambia, into African champions. He repeated the feat with Ivory Coast. Imagine what he could achieve with our current crop of players – arguably the most talented squad in Africa.
Speaking of our squad, we have the current African footballer of the year, Ademola Lookman, who’s making waves in Italy, Victor Osimhen the previous winner of the award making waves in Turkey. Aina and Alex Iwobi pulling strings in the Premier League. On paper, we have enough firepower to dominate African football. But football isn’t played on paper, is it?
The criteria used in selecting Chelle remains a mystery. His credentials as Mali’s coach in the last AFCON hardly set the pulse racing. Yes, he might understand African football, but the Super Eagles job is several notches higher than anything he’s handled before. It’s like promoting a high school mathematics teacher to become a university professor – the leap might prove too big.
However, football has a funny way of proving critics wrong. Remember when Chelsea appointed Roberto Di Matteo as interim manager? Everyone thought it was a joke until he led them to Champions League glory. Could Chelle be our Di Matteo moment?
The pathway to Nigerian hearts is straightforward for Chelle – qualify us for the World Cup and win the Africa Cup of Nations. Achieve these, and no one will care whether he’s African, European, or Martian. Fail, and he’ll face the kind of criticism that made some of his predecessors flee Nigeria in the dead of night.
The reality is that the Super Eagles job is not just about tactical acumen. It’s about managing oversized egos, dealing with administrative interference, handling media pressure, and most importantly, meeting the sky-high expectations of 200 million football-crazy Nigerians.
Time will tell whether the NFF’s gamble pays off. But one thing’s certain – Chelle can’t afford a slow start. The World Cup qualifiers are around the corner, and Nigerians aren’t known for their patience with coaches who don’t deliver immediate results.
For now, like every patriotic Nigerian, I’ll put aside my reservations and support Chelle. After all, his success is Nigeria’s success. But the NFF needs to understand that this appointment has placed them under intense scrutiny. If this experiment fails, the federation will have some serious explaining to do.
The ball is now in Chelle’s court. Can he prove that African coaches can compete with their foreign counterparts? Can he transform our talented squad into a winning machine? The next few months will provide the answers. For Nigeria’s sake, I hope they’re the right ones.
- Nda-Isaiah is a political analyst based in Abuja and can be reached on jonesdryx@gmail.com. His syndicated column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Saturdays.