BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
After two matches last March in which Nigeria Super Eagles won one and lost the other, the Nigeria Football Federation Finidi George has been judged as the right man for the vacant Super Eagles job.
He thus become the 41st person to occupy the position since the adhoc engagement of John Finch, former Fulham winger in 1949. According to a press release by the NFF, the board of the federation on Monday approved the recommendation of its technical development committee to appoint Finidi George as Head Coach of the Super Eagles.
George who belong to the Nigeria Golden Generation of Super Eagles of 1994 spent 20 months as assistant to José Santos Peseiro.
In his baptism as an interim national coach, his squad edged Ghana 2-1, ending an 18-year winless streak against the Black Stars, but then lost 0-2 to Mali in the second game. The loss to Mali was the first time Nigeria had been beaten by Mali since 1972.
As a national team player, George is best known as the player whose goal qualified Nigeria for the World Cup for the first time ever.
It was a goal scored against Algeria on 8 October 1993 – incidentally it was the 44th anniversary of Nigeria’s maiden international match played against Sierra Leone in 1949.
Finidi played 60 times for Nigeria and was Nigeria’s 40th scoring debutant when he came as a substitute in a 7-1 defeat of Burkina Faso on 27 July 1991.
He is a winner with the Super Eagles at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nation and featured at the World Cup at the USA ‘94 and France ’98.
Incidentally, his major task now is to qualify Nigeria to another World Cup in the USA and two other nations. The match is 35 days away from this Monday.
