Portuguese tactician, Jose Peseiro, has been appointed as Super Eagles Head Coach by the Nigeria Football Federation.
NFF made this known in a communique on Wednesday after its National Executive Council meeting.
“After careful consideration of a memo presented by Chairman of the Technical and Development Sub-Committee, the Executive Committee endorsed a proposal for the appointment of Mr Jose Peseiro as the new Head Coach of the Super Eagles, following the end to the relationship with Mr Gernot Rohr,” the NFF communique read in part.
The Portuguese appointment is announced 17 days after the sacking of Franco-German Gernot Rohr as Super Eagles coach.
Though Peseiro is expected to be at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations next month in Cameroon, he will take over the team fully after AFCON.
Below are some things you probably don’t know about the new manager:
Jose Peseiro, born 4 April 1960, is a Portuguese football manager and former player who played as a forward.
Peseiro never played in higher than the Segunda Liga as a professional, starting out at Sport Lisboa e Cartaxo in 1979. In that competition, he represented Amora FC, Clube Oriental de Lisboa, GD Samora Correia and S.C.U. Torreense, for a total of five seasons.
The then 34-year-old Peseiro retired at the end of the 1993–94 season in the fourth division, with local club União de Santarém.
Peseiro spent his first eight years as a manager in the third and fourth tiers of Portuguese football, starting out as a player-coach at his last team.
In summer 1999, he was appointed at C.D. Nacional, which he helped promote to the Primeira Liga in just three seasons. In 2002–03, he led the team to a final 11th position.
In 2003–04, Peseiro assisted Carlos Queiroz at Real Madrid. At the end of the campaign, after the team lost a considerable advantage on the table to be finally surpassed by Valencia CF, FC Barcelona and Deportivo de La Coruña, the pair were sacked.
Peseiro signed with Sporting CP for 2004–05. After recording three losses and two draws in his first nine games in charge, the side eventually finished in third place with 61 points, four behind champions S.L. Benfica. Additionally, he coached the team to a runner-up run in the UEFA Cup after disposing of the likes of Feyenoord, Middlesbrough and Newcastle United.
In the 2007 off-season, Peseiro was named manager of Panathinaikos FC. After failing to win the Super League Greece and also losing 0–4 to neighbouring Olympiacos F.C. in the domestic cup, he was forced to step down.
In June 2008, Peseiro signed a three-year contract with Romanian club FC Rapid București. On 2 October, after being eliminated from the UEFA Cup by VfL Wolfsburg, he resigned on 12 January 2009.
Peseiro succeeded Nasser Al-Johar at the helm of the Saudi Arabian national team in 2009, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. In his first game, he beat Iran 2–1 which was the former’s first-ever victory in that country and the latter’s first loss in nearly 40 home games. Eventually, the nation failed to reach the finals in South Africa, and on 10 January 2011, he was relieved of his duties after losing the first game in the AFC Asian Cup against Syria.
On 3 June 2012, Peseiro was appointed at S.C. Braga and he qualified the club to the group stage of the Champions League for the second time in its history, after ousting Udinese on penalties.
At the end of the campaign, in spite of winning the Taça da Liga and ranking fourth in the league, Braga and Peseiro reached an agreement to terminate the manager’s contract.
From 11 November 2013 to 11 January 2015, Peseiro worked with Al Wahda FC in the UAE Pro League. On 9 October of the latter year, Al Ahly SC announced his signing.
On 18 January 2016, after cutting ties with the Egyptian side, Peseiro replaced Julen Lopetegui at FC Porto.
On 6 June 2016, Peseiro signed a two-year deal with Braga. On 14 December, following consecutive home defeats that resulted in elimination from the Europa League and the Portuguese Cup, respectively at the hands of FC Shakhtar Donetsk (2–4) and S.C. Covilhã (1–2), he was fired.
Peseiro returned to the UAE in January 2017 with Sharjah FC and was sacked nine months later after a poor start to the new season. The following February, he went home to sign a contract at Vitória S.C. until June 2019, which he rescinded by mutual agreement a year early.
Peseiro returned to national team duties on 4 February 2020, being appointed by Venezuela after the resignation of Rafael Dudamel.
At the 2021 Copa América in Brazil, Venezuela were eliminated from the group stage with two draws and two defeats. He resigned in August, having not been paid for over a year amidst the South American country’s economic crisis.
Honours won by Peseiro are: Nacional (Segunda Divisão: 1999–00, AF Madeira Cup: 2001–02), Sporting CP (UEFA Cup runner-up: 2004–05),
Braga (Taça da Liga: 2012–13), Al Ahly (Egyptian Premier League: 2015–16) and Porto (Taça de Portugal runner-up: 2015–16).
