Finidi to be his own man as Super Eagles boss

Finidi George is best known for his time as a winger with Ajax Amsterdam during which time the perennial Dutch champions landed the UEFA Champions League.

As a coach, he worked with the youth teams of one of his former clubs Real Mallorca and has gone on to lead Enyimba to a record ninth NPFL crown.

He is a quiet achiever, who this season is answerable to Enyimba chairman Nwankwo Kanu, a junior player to him in hey days.

“He will always be his own man,” a close confidant of Finidi based in Amsterdam told SCORENigeria

“Many people mistake his quietness to him lacking personality.

“He is first and foremost a gentleman, but when he has to take a major decision, he will not be found wanting.”

The confidant added: “His humility should not be taken as a weakness.

“Unlike many of his former teammates, Finidi is still very well off many years after he quit playing, he invested wisely and he does not live a flamboyant lifestyle.

“So even some of the current Super Eagles players cannot match his own personal investments.”

As SCORENigeria first reported, the NFF have handed the 52-year-old Finidi the chance to audition for the Super Eagles top position after Jose Peseiro, who he has assisted, moved on after the AFCON.

How the Super Eagles fare in the friendlies against Ghana and Mali in Marrakesh, Morocco, will go a long way to determine whether he emerges as the chosen one by the end of this month.

A team source told SCORENigeria: “The boys respect him even though it has not been easy for him because he does not have the benefit of an assistant coach or even a video analyst.”

However, it is understood that he has enjoyed the full support of both the NFF technical department headed by former Super Eagles coach Augustine Eguavoen as well as the NFF technical committee.

Finidi will also be without the Super Eagles top star Victor Osimhen, who pulled out of the friendlies due to injury concerns.

He may have been given a half chance to prove he is the man for the top job when some other coaches never got.