The immediate past coach of English Premier League side Crystal Palace and world cup winner with France in 1998 Patrick Vieira is interested in becoming the new coach of the senior national team of Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Nigeria are still without a substantive coach following the departure of Finidi George as coach , with Austine Eguavoen taking the role in interim capacity, after talks with German coach Bruno Labbadia broke down despite the official announcement of his engagement as coach by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Eguavoen led the team to a 3-0 win against Benin Republic and a 0-0 draw against Rwanda in their first two games in the AFCON 2025 qualifiers, he is expected to remain in that role for the back to back games in October against Libya.
A source who craved anonymity in order to protect existing relationship said a former chieftain of the NFF, who is a fan of Arsenal reached out to the 48 year old to gauge his interest in the role and got a positive response.
Vieira recently lost out in his bid to be the coach of the United States of America leaving the word cup winner, who is of Senegalese descent open to the idea of coaching abroad with Nigeria a choice he wouldn’t reject.
For now no formal talks is planned with Vieira with the football authority in Nigeria backing Eguavoen fully for the games in October.
