Super Eagles Coach Peseiro, Quits After AFCON Final

Jose Peseiro has resigned as the coach of Nigeria’s men’s football team, the Super Eagles.

The Portuguese confirmed this in a statement on X formerly called Twitter on Friday, March 1, 2024.

According to him, his contract with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) had run out, and no new deal had been agreed on.

Peseiro, appointed Eagles head coach in 2022, described his tenure as “22 months of immense dedication, sacrifice, emotion, and enormous enthusiasm”.

He expressed gratitude to the players and top brass at NFF, adding that “we will always be there for you, no matter where you are”.

“Yesterday, we concluded our contract with the NFF. It was a pride and honour to coach the Super Eagles. It has been 22 months of immense dedication, sacrifice, emotion, and enormous enthusiasm. We feel a sense of fulfilment,” the tweet reads.

“We would like to express our gratitude to Sir Amaju Pinnick (the president who signed us), President Ibrahim Gusau, General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, Secretary Dayo Enebi, the NFF, all the Staff, and especially all the PLAYERS, with whom leading has been a great pleasure.

“Guys, we are thankful; it has been a privilege to be part of this family. We will miss you, but we will always be there for you, no matter where you are. A big hug to all of you.”

Peseiro led Nigeria to the final of the 34th AFCON, where they lost 2–1 against the host team, Ivory Coast.

Although Nigeria won silver in the tournament, many fans of the team were unconvinced by Peseiro’s strategy, which often sacrificed defence rigidity for attacking creativity.

Peseiro was, alongside the members of the squad, conferred with the national award of the Members of the Order of Niger (MON) and were also gifted plots of land and flats in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by President Bola Tinubu.

The Algeria Football Federation has showed interest in hiring coach Jose Peseiro who led Nigeria to the finals of 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

This came after Djamel Belmadi was fired following a dismal performance at the just-concluded AFCON tournament.

Belmadi was fired after the nation failed to advance beyond the Group stages.

According to an Algerian publication, DZ Foot, the president of the Algerian football federation, Walid Sadi, is impressed by Peseiro’s credentials and is willing to have a chat with the Portuguese tactician about taking over their national team job.

“Not made public, the shortlist established by the ad-hoc commission set up by the FAF, is made up of three names, namely José Peseiro (63 years old), Vladimir Petkovic (60 years old) and Carlos Queiroz (70 years old),” the website wrote.

While the name of Carlos Queiroz has come back in force in recent days as being the final choice of the FAF, according to our information this would ultimately not be the case and José Peseiro becomes the preferential choice of Walid Sadi.