The Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) has announced the appointment of a German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, as the new Super Eagles coach, with immediate effect.
Secretary General of the NFF, Mohammed Sanusi made the announcement in an early morning tweet on Tuesday via the NFF’s X handle.
Here are things to know about new Super Eagles coach Bruno Labbadia
1. Bruno Labbadia was born February 8, 1966.
2. He is a German football manager and former player who played as a striker.
3. Labbadia is of Italian ancestry.
4. His family roots go back to Lenola, a town in the Lazio region.
5. Labbadia’s Italian parents moved to Germany as Gastarbeiter and settled in Schneppenhausen near Darmstadt in Hesse.
6. Together with eight siblings, he and his family had lived on a farm for rent before moving to Weiterstadt when he was ten years old.
7. Labbadia communicated in Italian with his parents, while he spoke German with his siblings.
8. He acquired his secondary school leaving certificate and trained as an insurance salesman.
9. When he was 18 years old, he gave up Italian citizenship and became a German citizen, since in Germany only two foreigners were eligible to play in one team at the time, and so he gave place to a non- German in the squad of SV Darmstadt 98.
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10. He won the DFB-Pokal in 1989-90 with FC Kaiserslautern and the Bundesliga in 1993-94 with FC Bayern Munich.
11. He was also capped twice for the German team.
12. He last managed VfB Stuttgart.
13. He was also associated with the German U21 national team.
14. Labbadia made his debut for hometown Bundesliga side Darmstadt 98 in 1984–85, scoring 9 goals in 33 games.
15. Labbadia recorded 103 goals in 328 Bundesliga games across his career, including 50 goals for Arminia Bielefeld and 44 goals for his hometown club Darmstadt 98, as well as scoring 101 goals in 229 Bundesliga 2 games.
16. He netted a total of 229 goals across all competitions in his career having played for some of Germany’s top Bundesliga clubs.
17. He had two caps for the Germany national football team.
18. His most successful season was probably the 1998–99 season, where he scored 29 goals for Arminia Bielefeld.
19. Other notable seasons include 1986–87, where he scored 21 goals for Darmstadt 98, as well as 15 goal campaigns in 1987–88 and 1994–95 with top flight clubs Hamburger SV and 1. FC Köln.
20. In the 1989-90 season he scored twice in the final as his club FC Kaiserslautern beat Werner Bremen 3-2 in the final of the DFB-Pokal.
21. He also had 14 goals in his 1992–93 campaign with Bayern Munich and had 10 goals the next season where he was limited to only 23 appearances.
22. His final season was in 2002–03 with Bundesliga side Karlsruher SC where he netted 13 goals in 28 appearances.
23. He formerly coached Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburger SV (twice), VfB Stuttgart (twice), VfL Wolfsburg and Hertha BSC.
24. Labbadia becomes the 37th Head Coach of the Super Eagles after the resignation of Finidi George.