By Saidu Abubakar
That Portuguese, José Vítor dos Santos Peseiro is the new Head Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria is no longer news. The Nigerian Football Federation had announced the appointment saying it was with immediate effect but subject to the signing of agreed terms between it and the new coach.
The NFF said Peseiro, 62, would take charge of the Super Eagles starting with friendlies against Mexico and Ecuador, failing however, to disclose details of the Portuguese coach’s contract.
After an unassuming career as a player, he went on to coach several clubs in his country. Peseiro has coached clubs and national teams in four continents — Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.
He has coached at Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Panathinaikos, Rapid Bucharest, Sporting Braga, Victoria Gumaraes, Al-Hilal, Al-Wahda, Al-Ahly Cairo, Sharjah FC and Real Madrid (assistant coach during the Galacticos era), and worked as Head Coach of the Saudi Arabian and Venezuelan national teams.
Peseiro’s first outing with the Super Eagles was against Mexico at the AT & T Stadium in Dallas, Texas on May 28. From there to New Jersey against Ecuador at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison on June 2.
The NFF also announced former Nigerian international forward, Finidi George as Peseiro’s First Assistant, with Salisu Yusuf as the Second Assistant, doubling also as Head Coach of the CHAN and U23 National Teams.
Usman Abdallah is the Third Assistant while Eboboritse Uwejamomere is the Match Analyst and another former Nigeria international, Ike Shorounmu as the Goalkeepers’ Trainer.
Peseiro succeeds Augustine Eguavoen who failed to qualify the Super Eagles for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Peseiro, a football manager and former player who played as a forward, and holds UEFA Pro Coaching Licence, was born 4th April, 1960 (age 62 years), in Coruche, Portugal. He is married to Fátima Peseiro with two children: Susana Peseiro and Vítor Hugo Peseiro. His parents: Silvéria Peseiro, João Peseiro.
Porto hired the former Sporting and Braga boss Jose Peseiro as their new manager, 11 days after sacking manager Julen Lopetegui following a poor run, and later joined El Ahly Cairo as manager; Sporting CP, 2018-07-01, 2018-11-02; Vitória Guimarães, 2018-02-28, 2018-06-30; Sharjah, 2017-01-01, 2017-10-16; Sporting Braga, 2016-06-06.
Meanwhile, Jose Pedro Pais, a Boavista fan and TV commentator has criticised the decision of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) to appoint Jose Peseiro as the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria, terming it as a bad move.
Peseiro was announced by the NFF as the substantive coach of the Nigerian team on a short term basis which will see him replace interim manager Austine Eguavoen, but Pais said the appointment is nothing to be excited about as Peseiro is a poor coach who hasn’t lasted a season at any club in the past ten years.
Pais insists Nigerians shouldn’t be excited over his appointment as he hasn’t proved himself to be a good coach per his recent appointment and to him, he is a poor coach based on the manner of his exit from the teams he has handled in the last 10 years, most recently Venezuela.
“Peseiro is a well known person in Portugal. He’s been here for a long time, he is 61 I think, I don’t think he has much more to offer that we don’t already know but still. I must confess I was quite surprised, if there is something that still surprises me today in soccer is that we know managers can change according to age and system. If they have a good agent they can go everywhere in spite of the bad work they have done recently”, Pais said.
“I checked up his recent background because I wasn’t following. I haven’t heard a lot about him for the past years and I just remembered he is not a manager that I really appreciate and I don’t think he is quite good actually and I don’t think he has done an entire season in a team for the past 10 years. He was in Sporting, he was in Victoria, he was in Saudi Arabia, Braga, Porto but still for the very best 10 years he didn’t finish one entire season. Which means that he is not that good.
“I don’t think he is the kind of manager that can go through this wave of good coaches that Portugal has. There is a quite of fashion things about coaches. It’s a trend about Portuguese coaches, I don’t think he finds himself inside this wave.
“Therefore I don’t think there is much to expect from him. Venezuela was his last work. He only got one victory in 10 games. I think that’s a really bad record. He left to Venezuela at August.”
He said that he had 14 months without collecting salary which is not exactly the same thing when you’re coaching a club or country. “It’s completely different of course but I don’t see any good record recently not even recently, the last 10 years at a team. So I don’t see how he can go very well but still Nigeria has a very nice team with players like Chidozie (Awaziem) from Boavista and also from Portugal soccer Zaidu (Sanusi) and also other big players like Osimhen (Victor). Ndidi (Wilfred) Iwobi (Alex) and many others.
“So I have seen that he is going to only manage the team after AFCON. I think his success depends on the expectations on his job, on his performance and also this expectations will depend on how much success Nigeria is at this AFCON but still if I was a Nigerian supporter. I won’t be very excited at this moment about his appointment”, he concluded.