Izuchukwu Okosi
The Nigeria Football Federation on Sunday confirmed the appointment of Jose Peseiro as the substantive head coach of the Super Eagles after many weeks of intrigues reports Prime Business Africa.
NFF in a statement noted that Peseiro’s appointment is with immediate effect, subject to the signing of agreed terms between him and the NFF.
NFF however did not disclose the duration of his appointment but confirmed that the Portuguese will take charge of the men’s national team starting from the Mexico and Ecuador friendly matches.
The Eagles will face the El Tri at the AT & T Stadium in Dallas, State of Texas on Saturday, 28th May (1. 08am on Sunday May 29 in Nigeria) before flying to New Jersey to confront Ecuador at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison on Thursday, 2nd June.
The three-time African champions will begin their quest to qualify for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire with qualifying games in June against Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau.
Peseiro was expected to take over the reins of the team from interim coach Austin Eguavoen after the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon but was not handed the job.
Eguavoen seemingly was on the running for a long term deal after his Eagles’ flamboyant playing style at the AFCON despite the round of 16 stages elimination but that plan was jettisoned after Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Peseiro, 62 last month, is a Portuguese who 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.
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 U-23 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.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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