After much waiting and searching, the Nigeria Football Federation have appointed former Mali international Eric Chelle as new head coach of the Super Eagles.
The announcement of Chelle has not been particularly met with a lot of praise from Nigerian fans, with many believing the NFF could have opted for a more solid name or stick with a Nigerian coach with a proven track record.
Chelle was recently in charge of the Mali national team between May 2022 and March 2024 and had a pretty decent record with 13 wins out of 21 games, winning five and losing three.
NFF appoints Éric Chelle as Head Coach of the Super Eagles pic.twitter.com/f3riZUo1f9
— The NFF 🇳🇬 (@thenff) January 7, 2025
His managerial career, which has largely been with teams in the French lower tier, totals 70 wins out of 159 matches with 42 draws and 47 losses.
That is not really an outstanding record considering the high standards expected of the Super Eagles where winning the Africa Cup of Nations and qualifying for the FIFA World Cup is the bare minium.
Indeed, Mali have never been to the World Cup and their best AFCON performance was a runner-up finish in 1972, five years before Chelle was born while there were two third-place finishes (2012 and 2013) and three fourth places finishes (1994, 2002 and 2004).
Ironically, Nigeria outperformed Mali in most of their best AFCON outings, winning it in 1994 and 2013 and beating them to the bronze medal in 2002 and 2004.
Chelle did not manage to reach such a level while in his two years in charge, even though he managed to beat Nigeria in an international friendly in Marrakesh back in March, what is the guarantee he can make it with an even bigger national team?
It is not as though Mali started their own 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign in strong fashion either as they are currently fourth in Group I, four points behind tiny island nation Comoros who lead while Ghana and Madagascar are second and third respectively.
One thing is certain in that immense pressure is already mounting on the Chelle. The 47-year-old’s first official assignment will come in the World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda, whom they failed to beat in the AFCON 2025 qualifiers and Zimbabwe, whom they could only manage a draw with in reverse fixture in Kigali.
The Super Eagles already find themselves in an unfamiliar second from bottom in the Group C standings behind Rwanda, South Africa, Benin, Lesotho and only ahead of the Zimbabweans.
Failure to get maximum points in both fixtures in Kigali and Uyo could further dampen Nigeria’s hopes of making it to Canada, the United States and Mexico in two years time, potentially making it back-to-back failures in qualifying for the Mundial which will be a first since making their tournament debut in 1994.
Managing the Super Eagles is one of toughest jobs in the world. Fan favourite and ex-international Finidi George was shown no mercy after he failed to get any wins against rivals South Africa and neighbours Benin last June.
He ultimately lost his job after four months in charge with Augustine Eguavoen overseeing the team on the interim for the 2025 AFCON qualifiers which was achieved.
Chelle must now do arguably a misson impossible and must pull off some mind-blowing stunts to save the Super Eagles from embarrassment.
He was already a subject of ridicule, memes and banter after a video surfaced online of water being poured over his head after Mail’s extra time loss to Ivory Coast in the AFCON 2023 quarter-finals.
Speaking after Mali’s AFCON 2023 last eight exit, he said: “Of course, I am a bad loser. What is good about football is that something can always happen. I have decided to give my players the goal of playing well to win.”
Nigerian fans can take the banter up a notch if he cannot achieve the bare minimum in just two crucial games.
The onus is therefore on the former RC Lens centre-back to save his reputation from being tainted beyond what he would never imagined or expected as the first non-Nigerian African coach.
