NFF to name Eagles coach Monday, shortlists Saintfiet, Yusuf, Le Guen

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has announced that the new head coach of Nigeria’s senior team will be unveiled on Monday.

Chris Green, chairman of the federation’s technical and development committee, said this on Friday, disclosing that Tom Sainfiet, former Ethiopia coach, Salisu Yusuf, the team’s caretaker coach and Paul Le Guen, former coach of the Cameroonian squad, have been shortlisted for the job.

Green, who addressed reporters at the Glass House, said over 20 applications were received for the plum job.

“We set the criteria with which we evaluated the nearly two dozen applications and then agreed on the three persons that we shortlisted,” he said.

“The committee will meet on Monday, 18th July 2016 to interview the shortlisted candidates and immediately name the next Super Eagles’ head coach.”

Belgian Saintfiet, 43, coached the national teams of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Yemen, Malawi and Togo, and also worked with the Qatar U-17 side, Young Africans FC of Tanzania and Free State Stars FC in South Africa.

Yusuf, 54, was capped by Nigeria at U20 level, won FA Cup titles with El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri as a player and coached top clubs Kano Pillars, El-Kanemi Warriors and Enyimba FC.

He assisted Super Eagles’ chiefs Samson Siasia and the late Stephen Keshi , and was caretaker coach for two friendlies that the Eagles won against Mali and Luxembourg in Europe back in May.

Le Guen, 52, played for Brest, Nantes and Paris Saint Germain and won 17 caps for France, before coaching Rennes, Lyon, PSG (in France) and Glasgow Rangers (in Scotland). He qualified the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals and also coached Oman.

Among those who showed interest in coaching the three –time African champions are Giovanni Solinas, Saintfiet, Hey Antoine, Mark Wotte, Yusuf, Ernesto Paulo Calvinho, Dorian Marin, Le Guen, Miodrag Jesic, Perry Hansen, Ove Pedersen, Adebayo Lateef Kola, Sylvanus Okpala, Peter Ijeh, Vladimir Petrovic-Pizon, Lodewijk de Kruif, Kenichi Yatsuhashi, Bjorn Frank Peters and Ricki Herbert.