Super Eagles head coach Finidi George has made it clear that there is no truth in the reports that suggest he would be combining the national team job with his role as Enyimba FC manager, Soccernet.ng reports.
Finidi led Enyimba FC to win the Nigeria Professional Football League title last year and had powered them to the third position on the log this term with only six games left to play.
Finidi combined his job at the Aba Elephants with his role as the assistant coach to Jose Peseiro during the Portuguese tactician’s 20-month stint in charge of the Super Eagles.
However, after Finidi was appointed to succeed Peseiro, some reports indicated he would still retain his position with Enyimba FC.
But the former Ajax Amaterdam winger has cleared the air, insisting that he has vacated his office in Aba as he is fully committed to the Super Eagles.
Finidi maintains that the national team job is a bigger job than any club position in the NPFL, especially with Nigeria looking to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“I don’t think it is wise to continue with Enyimba, knowing the level of work needed for them to retain the league title, and at the same time, carry on with the strenuous job of running a quality Super Eagles team,” Finidi told Afrik-Foot.
“I don’t think it will be wise for me handling Enyimba and the Super Eagles at the same time. I am not a superman.
“As you rightly said, this is a difficult job, and running Enyimba is also very difficult. I am only human. I can’t be stressing myself trying to win the league again and then battling with the Eagles to qualify for the World Cup; I can’t do both. So it’s wise that I follow the Super Eagles, which is a bigger challenge with a bigger commitment, which makes it a bigger job.
“We are talking about the entire country, Nigeria’s team, with over 200 million watching. I didn’t need the NFF to prompt me because I know the kind of load on the ground, and that’s why I spoke with the Chairman of Enyimba Football Club about the situation, which he understood very well. So that is not a problem at all.”
Nigeria will trade tackles with South Africa and the Benin Republic next month as part of the World Cup qualifying campaign.