Duro Ikhazuagbe
It is now official that Portuguese gaffer, José Vitor dos Santos Peseiro, 62, has been appointed as the new Head Coach of the Super Eagles.
After nearly five months when Peseiro was first appointed to lead the Nigerian senior national team and the deal was placed on ice due to higher sports authorities that forced the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to call off the arrangement, the former Saudi Arabia and Venezuelan gaffer is now awaited to agree to the offer before him.
Yesterday, Director of Communication of the NFF, Ademola Olajire, announced in a statement that Peseiro is the preferred choice amongst the four coaches interviewed for the job.
The others were former Barcelona manager, Ernesto Valverde, former Derby County gaffer, Phillip Cocu and former Cameroon Head Coach, Anthony Conceicao.
“The appointment (of Peseiro) is with immediate effect, subject to the signing of agreed terms between the NFF and Mr Peseiro,” the official statement from the NFF announced.
Peseiro 62 played as a striker in his days and has wide and varied experience coaching top Clubs and National Teams across four different continents, namely Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
An educationist with a degree in physical education/sports sciences, Peseiro has top-level coaching qualifications/training, and has coached at Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Panathinaikos, Rapid Bucharest, Sporting Braga, Victoria Gumaraes, Al-Hilal, Al-Wahda, Al-Ahly Cairo, Sharjah FC and Real Madrid (assistant coach during the Galacticos era), as well as serving as Head Coach of the Saudi Arabian and Venezuelan National Teams.
Peseiro’s first assignment will be to lead out the Super Eagles for the first time during the upcoming tour of the United States of America, during which the three-time African champions will slug it out with Mexico and Ecuador ‘A’ Teams in prestige friendlies.
The Eagles will tango with theEl Tri at the AT & T Stadium in Dallas, State of Texas on Saturday, 28th Maybefore flying to New Jersey to confront Ecuador at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison on Thursday, 2ndJune.
The NFF also announced that former Nigeria international forward, Finidi George will now be 1st Assistant to Peseiro, with Salisu Yusuf now to be 2nd Assistant as well as Head Coach of the CHAN and U23 National Teams. Usman Abdallah is 3rd Assistant while Eboboritse Uwejamomere will be the Match Analyst and another former Nigeria international, Ike Shorounmu will be the Goalkeepers’ Trainer.
