With just two months until the crucial 2026 World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin, many Nigerians are still worried about the absence of a substantive coach who will manage the team.

Completesports.com’s AUSTINE AKHILOMEN highlights three top candidates: Emmanuel Amuneke, Domènec Torrent, and Toni Conceicao, who seem to be the top three picks of the Nigerian authorities from which one will emerge to become the substantive replacement for Jose Peseiro – as the new Head Coach of Nigeria’s senior national football team.

Read also in this piece, the profile of another prominent candidate who showed interest in the job but is no longer in top reckoning, namely; Finidi George, Danny Buijs, and Herve Renard.

Emmanuel Amuneke (Nigeria)

Touted by many football enthusiasts as the next potential coach of the Super Eagles after the departure of Jose Peseiro in February. He seems the authorities’ choice if they can’t afford to bankroll an employment of a foreign coach.

Amuneke will be remembered for leading the Golden Eaglets to win the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup. With some of the players such as Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze already playing for the Super Eagles.

The 53-year-old has played a pivotal role in nurturing several Nigerian talents who have successfully transitioned from youth football to the senior national team.

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He had a successful stint with the Tanzania senior national team, qualifying the team for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, where they lost all three matches against Algeria, Senegal, and Kenya in Group C.

Domènec Torrent (Spain)

Former assistant coach to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, Torrent will be counting on his experience, having worked with high-profile clubs in Europe.

The 61-year-old has worked closely with Guardiola throughout his coaching career, including stints at Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City, where they achieved significant success, winning numerous trophies.

Torrent’s last job as manager was when he was named Galatasaray head coach in 2022. However, after a string of losses in the Super Lig, he was shown the exit door on June 21, 2022.

While Torrent is yet to secure a trophy as a head coach, he is known for instilling a silky attacking style of play in his teams, a quality many Nigerians have been yearning for since the Super Eagles’ performance at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), where they won silver after losing to the host, Cote d’Ivoire, in the final.

Toni Conceicao (Portugal)

Conceicao is not a stranger to African football culture, having coached the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, where he finished in the top spot in the qualifying series of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations despite being the host.
However, he led the team to a third-place finish before he was dismissed in 2022.

Some of the clubs the Portuguese tactician has coached include CFR Cluj, Moreirense, Nea Salamina, Penafiel, and Belenenses, to name a few.

Conceicao will compete with several high-profile coaches on the continent for the coveted position of managing the three-time AFCON champions.

UNFAVORED CANDIDATES

Finidi George (Nigeria)

One of Jose Peseiro’s assistant coaches left the job after the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, where Nigeria finished second.

Finidi is another quality coach who has made his name with Enyimba International before being saddled with the responsibility of managing the Super Eagles on an interim basis.

Victory for the Super Eagles against their arch-rivals, the Black Stars of Ghana in an international friendly in his first game in charge was a big result for his dossier. However, a loss against Mali in his second game in charge put questions on his ability to manage the team.

Danny Buijs (The Netherlands)

Danny Buijs is a 41-year-old manager from the Netherlands who is currently in charge of Fortuna Sittard. Buijs’ Fortuna Sittard is currently 11th on the Eredivisie table with just nine wins from 30 league games.

It’s worth noting that Danny Buijs ended his playing career with amateur side Kozakken Boys, and a couple of years after his retirement, he became the team’s head coach.
It’s important to point out that Buijs has no experience with national teams; he didn’t even represent any country during his playing days.

Herve Renard (France)

He was once regarded as the white-witch doctor of African football, having won the Africa Cup of Nations with two different nations, Ivory Coast, and Zambia respectively.

Recall that in 2012, he led Chipolopolo of Zambia to win their first-ever Afcon trophy before helping Ivory Coast to their second Afcon trophy in 2015. Before then, he led Burkina Faso to the finals of the tournament, where they lost to the Super Eagles 1-0.

At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Renard’s Saudi Arabia team shocked the football world by defeating eventual world champion Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the group stages.

Still under contract with the French female football team, Renard needs no introduction again as he has seen it when it comes to African football. It is, however, not yet known if the NFF will be patient enough to wait until his contract expires on May 31st.

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