Gusau confident Eric Chelle committed to Nigeria course

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Ibrahim Gusau has remained confident Eric Chelle will remain as the national team head coach despite having one year remaining in his contract.

The Malian tactician led the Super Eagles to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco where despite a great start to the campaign, Nigeria failed to win the trophy.

Nigeria settled for a bronze medal after defeating Egypt in the third-place play off fixture on penalties. Despite the AFCON run, NFF top brass seems to have kept faith with Chelle with Gusau hinting at extending his contract.

‘We don’t want any distractions for him’

“We still have a one-year contract with Eric (Chelle) so whatever interest anybody will show on him he has to wait until his contract expires,” Gusau said as quoted by Complete Sports.

“We don’t want any distractions for him because we quite well understand that he enjoys working with Nigeria. It’s not about whether a team is interested in you and it’s not because he has gotten the result with the Super Eagles.

“So, if he goes to the other team despite the fact that they are going to give him more money to get the result, that’s not the issue, the issue is if they have the materials there for him to work with, to achieve what he wants to achieve.”

Chelle believes in the Super Eagles

Gusau added: “The dream of every single coach is to make sure that he achieves success especially at big tournaments so it’s not the issue of money but will he achieve what he wants to achieve in his career or is he just going there for the money.

“But the key thing is that I know coach Eric believes in the Super Eagles and he believes he can achieve whatever he wants to achieve in his career when it comes to coaching, especially with the national team within the African continent.

“So, he has so much belief in the Super Eagles and he has every confidence he can achieve all his dreams with the Super Eagles, so that’s the key thing I believe in and I know we’ve discussed it with him. To us, we believe in him, he is part of the Super Eagles and will continue to be part of the Super Eagles.”

In Morocco, Nigeria won all their group stage matches, beating Tanzania 2-1, Tunisia 3-2, and Uganda 3-1. They came up against Mozambique in the Round of 16 winning the game 4-0.

During the quarters, Nigeria floored Algeria 2-0 before their journey for the crown came to an end in the semifinals following a 4-2 penalty shootout defeat against Morocco.