Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

The return of Stephen Keshi as Nigeria’s national team coach is clearly an anomaly but one that may or may not bode well for Nigeria’s soccer in the near future. Nigeria has experienced the re-appointment of coaches including Shuaibu Amodu and Adegboye Onigbinde. However, never before has Nigeria re-appointed a coach immediately after he was terminated except in the case of Stephen Keshi.  In 2013, Keshi abruptly resigned after winning the Cup for African Nations (CAN) but was persuaded back through intervention of top government officials. In the midst of the 2015 CAN qualifiers, the NFF announced that Keshi was fired even though Keshi was not under contract. However, the NFF reversed itself following pressure from top government officials. Now this!  Below, we make a case on why a renewed contract may bode well and we also make the case why it may not. You take your pick. Why It May be a Good Move Here are five points why it may be a good move on the part of th...

Nigeria has been, perhaps, the world's most dominant team in youth football, particularly at the U17 level. In the last decade alone, Nigeria has won two U17 World Cups and placed second once in a total of four competitions! That is unmatched by any other country in the world. Though Nigeria has also played well at the U20 level, its dominance has been restricted to the continental level. At the U23 level, Nigeria has placed second in one of two Olympic games in the decade. It is clear from the above results that Nigeria is a dominant force in global youth soccer. In this piece, we compare coaches who have managed Nigerian national youth teams during the decade (2006 till date) at three levels - U17, U20, and U23. It is important to interpret the data with caution because results prior to 2006 are not included and this affects efficiency scores of some of the coaches included in the data. For instance, at the U20 level, Siasia's excellent results with the team prior to 2006 a...