Six months after his dismissal from the post of coach of Mali, Eric Chelle offers himself quite a snub and a rebound of choice. The technician was officially named coach of Nigeria, the reigning African vice-champion, this Tuesday evening.
Successful coach of Mali, which he led to the quarter-finals of the last CAN, Eric Chelle had been fired in June after two poor performances in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Subsequently, the Franco-Malian bounced back at MC Oran, in Algeria in October, with mixed results (4 wins, 2 draws and 5 defeats).
The technician’s service record was in any case enough to convince the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) to make him the new strongman of the Super Eagles.
“The Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Subcommittee for the appointment of Mr. Éric Sékou Chelle as Head Coach of the Nigeria Senior Men’s National Football Team, the Super Eagles. At its meeting held in Abuja on Thursday, January 2, 2025, the Technical and Development Subcommittee of the NFF had recommended the appointment of the former senior men’s national team coach of the Mali as the new head coach of the Super Eagles. This recommendation was made on Tuesday January 7“, justified the instance.
2026 World Cup objective
The duration of the contract has not been specified but the objective assigned to the former coach of Marseille Consolat, Martigues and Boulogne is very clear: to qualify the Super Eagles for the 2026 World Cup.His appointment takes effect immediately and he has the responsibility of guiding the Super Eagles to clinch a ticket to the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals, with the next set of matches (days 5 and 6) taking place in March“, indicated the NFF.
With only 3 points after 4 days and a 5th place in the standings in his group, the finalist of the last CAN got off to a very bad start to his qualifying campaign. But there are 6 matches left on the program and the Rwandan leader, against whom Chelle will start, only has a 4-point lead, just like South Africa and Benin, co-leaders. Everything therefore remains possible.
It’s up to Chelle to do better than Finidi George and Augustine Eguavoen, who succeeded Victor Peseiro without much success as Super Eagles selectors in recent months, still managing to ensure the qualification for CAN 2025. In August, the NFF also made a mistake by somewhat hastily announcing the appointment of the German Bruno Labbadia, who ultimately did not come.
