Former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has welcomed the appointment of his fellow German, Bruno Labbadia, as the new head coach of Nigeria’s national team.
Rohr, who led the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup, views Labbadia’s hiring as a positive development. He believes it signifies that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) appreciates the Teutonic style he introduced during his tenure.
Rohr, now 71, had a notable impact on the team, guiding them back to major tournaments after missing the 2015 and 2017 AFCON editions.
His time with the Super Eagles was cut short in December 2021, and since then, the team has been managed by three different coaches.
Portuguese coach José Peseiro led Nigeria to a second-place finish at the 2023 AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire, while interim coaches Austin Eguavoen and Finidi George had less success.
Eguavoen fell short in World Cup qualifying and exited the 2021 AFCON in the Round of 16, and George resigned after just two matches following Peseiro’s departure in March 2024.
Against expectations, the NFF announced Labbadia’s appointment as the new head coach of the Super Eagles in the early hours of Tuesday.
“Of course, I know him because he was a former Bayern Munich player and he played for them after me,” Rohr whose Beninese side face the Super Eagles in their Group D 2025 AFCON tine on September 7 in Uyo, told NationSports.“ I wish him all the best but not against Benin.”
Though many Nigerians remain sceptical of Labbadia due to his not too convincing pedigree after being fired in his last two jobs at Hertha Berlin and Stuttgart, Rohr said the 56-year-old is not an unknown quantity as such.
‘’He is a good coach but this is the first time he would be taking over a national team,” Rohr, one of the current long-serving foreign tacticians in Africa, further told NationSports.“ I think the NFF took him (Labbadia) because they had good experience in the past with a German coach (general laughter) with a German coach and that is why they have taken another one.
“We would be meeting very soon. As far as I know, Bruno is a good guy and I say welcome to Africa.’”
“We now have three German coaches in our AFCON’s Group D and in fact, we are five because I have two assistants with here in Benin that actually have German passports ; one is from Benin and the other one is a Tunisian but leaving in Germany. So we are five Germans in the AFCON group of four.
“What a crazy situation,” he added .
