The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) would not have thought they would be on the hunt for a new Super Eagles head coach not quite two months after appointing the last.
Following Finidi George's resignation after just two official games in charge, however, the NFF needs to get to work again, knowing they must get it right this time.
While competence surely is the primary criterion to be considered in identifying Finidi's successor, there is also the small matter of deciding whether that person should be drawn from the pool of indigenes or be an expatriate—and, right now, the odds, and a statement by the NFF themselves, seem to favour the latter.
Even for a country that has reposed a lot of faith in their own for the best part of this century, it does feel that—given the circumstances that led to the current vacancy—looking abroad would be particularly shrewd.
Here are three reasons.
NFF would trust and back an expatriate more
It did not take too long for the NFF to arrive at the conclusion that Finidi, without foreign guidance, would alone not be capable enough to steer the technical affairs of the Super Eagles—and even if the idea seemed somewhat premature and disrespectful in its conception (which is why Finidi claims he eventually left), you can begin to appreciate the NFF's reasoning.
Drawing at home to rivals South Africa was bad enough, but the ensuing defeat on the road to Benin—coached by no other than Gernot Rohr, a German and former Nigeria boss—was so much more damaging to the team's 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification fortunes and to Finidi's own credibility.
The NFF quickly announced a move for an expatriate whose expertise they would obviously trust a lot more as technical adviser. With Finidi no longer at post, though, they now have the chance to go one better.
An expatriate would have a stronger grip on players
A scathing verbal attack by Victor Osimhen, the most high-profile Nigerian footballer right now and the reigning African Player of the Year, on Finidi proved the final nail in the latter's already-prepared coffin as Nigeria head coach.
From that loud vote of no confidence, there would have been no coming back for Finidi. Player power is a thing, and in the Super Eagles camp, it could prove potentially disruptive. And while some foreign managers of the team have had run-ins with influential players in the past, they generally elicit more reverence from the players for reasons not easily explicable.
It would be hard, for instance, to imagine Osimhen opening fire on an expatriate as he did in the case of Finidi, no matter how legitimate his reasons may be. And that, no doubt, would be great for maintaining squad discipline.
The Super Eagles have flourished recently under expatriates
Honestly, though, have Nigeria not fared better under foreign trainers in the last decade?
Ever since that blissful 2013-14 stretch during which the team won a third Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title and reached the World Cup's Round of 16 under the late Stephen Keshi, the Super Eagles' best outcomes have been delivered by the aforementioned Rohr (bronze at AFCON 2019, 2018 World Cup qualification) and Finidi's predecessor Jose Peseiro (silver at AFCON 2024).
If that is anything to go by, it is perhaps no great surprise that the NFF feels the team's chances of success would be significantly improved with a foreign trainer at the helm.
Not many Nigerians would disagree—especially if they find one who ticks all the right boxes required to get the team functioning as it should on and off the pitch.
