Almost one year after parting ways with the 2023 AFCON silver winning coach, Portuguese Jose Peseiro, at the expiration of his contract, the hunt for his replacement by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) came to a denouement last week with the appointment of the Malian-French gaffer, Eric Sekou Chelle, for the Super Eagles. The unveiling of the new gaffer and his assistants took place yesterday at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
However, the appointment of Chelle by the NFF, now on tenterhooks over the Super Eagles’ lumbering flight in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, has generated a lot of kerfuffle within the football circle, with many describing it not only as an insult to the nation’s soccer pedigree but also akin to hiring a lilliputian to lead a team of giant warriors. Having waited this long, they had expected a high-profile foreign coach that is far superior to the likes of Gernot Rohr and Peseiro who replaced him in terms of quality and track records.
Conversely, some soccer buffs have argued that having tried and tested the home-grown coaches and white materials with no tangible results to show for their efforts in recent years, it was high time the nation went for something out of the ordinary, such as hiring a foreign gaffer of African descent.
Chelle’s pedigree as a player and coach may not be as impressive as some of those who have handled our senior national team in its over seven decades history.
He only burst into limelight recently when he was picked by Mali to take charge of the Malian Eagles in May 2022 ahead of former Nigeria’s boss Gernot Rohr and ex-Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer. Surprisingly, he impressed by qualifying Mali for the 2023 AFCON, losing just one game and finishing as the second-highest scorers with 13 goals in his group.
He won only five caps for Mali between 2004 and 2006 but had previously never appeared at a major tournament. Chelle spent his entire professional playing career in France, beginning in the lower leagues with Martigues. As a centre-back, he played for Valenciennes and helped the team to win two consecutive league titles to reach the top flight in 2006.
Chelle started his path to coaching in 2014 as an assistant with GS Consolat (now known as Athletico Marseille), a French amateur club. He re-joined Martigues as head coach in 2017 before moving to Boulogne in May 2021. However, he was dismissed seven months later by the third-tier outfit after one win in 10 games. On the continent, his high-profile coaching records are limited to guiding Mali to the 2023 AFCON which it exited in the quarterfinals against the host nation, Cote d’Ivoire that led to his sack.
The poser many have for Chelle’s employers is: “Having waited for close to a year, why hiring a 2023 AFCON flop to replace a silver winning Peseiro?”
Perhaps, there are intrinsic qualities that only they can see when viewed against the huge challenge that lies ahead of the Super Eagles – the qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Finals which the nation last featured in 2018 in Russia. It is believed in some quarters that the 47-year-old gaffer won the admiration of his new employers last year when he led Mali to a rare victory over Nigeria in a friendly encounter, the first in 50 years!
The campaign for the 2026 qualifiers resumes next month and Nigeria is wallowing in the nether region of Group ‘C’ comprising six teams, having failed to win any of its first four matches. Currently, Rwanda, South Africa and Benin are leading the pack in that order with seven points each. Lesotho is fourth with five points, while Nigeria has three miserable points to place fifth.
Zimbabwe is at the bottom of the ladder with only two points. For the Super Eagles to qualify from the group, they have to perform miracles by winning the remainders of their matches. That is the herculean task for Chelle to accomplish.
However, some pundits who have followed his trajectory have described him as a good manager of materials, kind, courteous and “a real fighter”. He is also widely regarded as an ambitious coach who has zero tolerance for indiscipline and indolence.
Despite the skepticism surrounding Chelle’s hiring, Blueprint is of the opinion that he should be given a chance to play his own part during his contract pegged for two years. There are many iconic coaches who have emerged from obscure football background(s) to take the world by storm. An instance is Portuguese Jose Mourinho who has handled many high-profile teams across the European leagues, winning many laurels. Barring any language barrier, Chelle is a propagator of 4-3-3 philosophy which is native to the Super Eagles. That should enable him to settle in fast and hit the ground running. We urge the Nigerian sports family to put toxic sentiment aside and rally round the new helmsman to succeed. His success is not entirely his but ours also.
It is gratifying to note that the federal government has put in place a Presidential Support Group (PSG) to work towards Nigeria’s qualification for the 2026 World Cup showpiece. Nigeria was in a similar precarious situation ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals hosted by South Africa. A presidential support committee set up by the Goodluck Jonathan administration ensured the nation’s qualification. All hands should, therefore, be on deck to actualise the dream that has eluded the Giant of Africa after the Moscow 2018 jamboree.