NFF hopeful of signing up Herve Renard after he agrees to take pay cut to manage Super Eagles

NIGERIAN Football Federation (NFF) officials are hopeful that they will be able to announce French coach Herve Renard as the new Super Eagles manager next week after it emerged that he has agreed to take a pay cut so he can be appointed.

In what is looking like a bleak period for Nigerian football, the country is currently facing the risk of missing out on two successive World Cups after  disastrous start to her 2026 campaign that has seen the Eagles pick up just three points from four matches. After the last game which ended in a loss away to Benin Republic, manager Finidi George resigned after just two games in charge.

Since then, the NFF has been searching for a coach and Renard, who just left his job as coach of the French women's football team, is top of their list. A coach with a huge pedigree, Renard has a lot of experience of African football, having led both Zambia and Ivory Coast to victory in the African Cup of Nations and he has also coached Morocco, as well as Saudi Arabia.

Mr Renard, 55, has said that he is keen to coach a national men's team ahead of the 2026 World Cup and apparently has agreed to take a pay cut to be the new Super Eagles coach. NFF chairman Ibrahim Gusau plans to meet with him this weekend after the coach's representatives had initially met with the NFF technical committee.

Earlier this week, Mr Renard’s contract with the French women’s team ended after they were knocked out of the Paris 2024 Olympics by Brazil over the weekend. This immediately led to the NFF abandoning plans to name former Malian coach Eric Chelle as Super Eagles head coach, knowing Mr Renard would be the ideal appointment.

Mr Chelle had been picked for the jib by the NFF technical committee after it interviewed him and two other coaches for the job. Current head coach of the Philippines Tom Saintfeit and former England boss Steve McClaren were all interviewed, with the latter since taking up the Jamaican national team job.

With Mr Renard now agreeing to take a pay cut and accept less than his original request of N300m ($20,000) a month, the NFF believes it will be able to reach a deal with him. It is most likely that sports minister John Enoh will need to speak to private sponsors to foot the coach's salary.