The Nigeria Football Federation has announced that it has reached an agreement with German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, to become the Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles.

NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said in the early hours of Tuesday: “The NFF Executive Committee has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to appoint Mr. Bruno Labbadia as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles. The appointment is with immediate effect.”

Born in Darmstadt, Germany on 8th February 1966, Labbadia, who won two caps for Die Mannschaft in his playing career that took him through clubs such as home-town team Darmstadt 98, Hamburger SV, FC Kaiserslautern, Bayern Munich, FC Cologne, Werder Bremen, Armenia Bielefeld and Karlsruher SC, triumphed in the German Bundesliga with Bayern Munich as a player in 1994.

He coached famous names Hertha Berlin and VfB Stuttgart this decade, and previously, VfL Wolfsburg, Hamburger SV, Bayer Leverkusen, among others, and holds a UEFA Pro License.

He is only the sixth German, after Karl-Heinz Marotzke (who had two stints between 1970 and 1974), Gottlieb Göller (1981), Manfred Höner (1988-1989), Berti Vogts (2007-2008) and Gernot Rohr (2016-2021) to lead the Super Eagles.

Höner led the Eagles to runner-up position at the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations, while Rohr qualified and led Nigeria to the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia.

Labbadi’s immediate challenge is to take charge of the three-time African champions for two 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Saturday 7th Septemberin Uyo) and Rwanda (Tuesday, 10th Septemberin Kigali), with four other matches to conclude the qualifying race following in the months of October and November.

* Victory came in fourth round of highly-anticipated clash

* du Plessis has defended his middleweight world title

Dricus du Plessis on Sunday submitted Israel Adesanya in the fourth round at UFC 305 to defend his middleweight title and add a decisive new chapter to their intense rivalry.

The South African executed a rear naked choke to take the win after rocking the ‘Style Bender’ with a left hook and a series of rights before taking him down.

The victory in Perth, Western Australia on Sunday (local time) came after du Plessis played a part in driving Adesanya to break down in tears and storm off the stage when he was asked about his family during their pre-fight press conference on Friday.

Du Plessis’s long rivalry with Nigerian-born Adesanya has seen them take shots at each other for years.

Both fighters have been battling each other for the ‘real African’ title for some time, after du Plessis claimed to be the first champion from the continent.

The statement infuriated Adesanya – who now represents New Zealand in the octagon – as well as Kamaru Usman, the former UFC welterweight champion.

However, the rivals were full of praise for each other after the fight was decided.

South Africa survived a Cape Verde’s scare to win on penalties and set up a semi-final clash with Nigeria at the ongoing African Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire

Goalkeeper Ronwen Williams was the hero as South Africa beat Cape Verde 5-3 on penalties following a goalless 120 minutes to advance to the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals.

After a tense last eight clash ended 0-0 at the Charles Konan Banny Stadium in Yamoussoukro on Saturday night, Williams remarkably saved four spot-kicks in the shootout to send Bafana Bafana through.

Both sides started brightly in an open first half, but stellar defending and top-class goalkeeping from Williams and Cape Verde’s Vozinha kept the game goalless at the break.

The second half followed a similar pattern as the teams traded blows in search of the breakthrough. But a combination of desperation and brilliant defending saw numerous chances go begging.

Cape Verde almost stole it in added time when Gelson Tavares pounced on a deep ball only to smash his shot off the bar with Williams getting a hand to it. 0-0 after 90 minutes meant extra time.

The additional 30 minutes brought more chances, with South Africa’s Fagrie Lakay forcing a superb save from Vozinha. But the deadlock remained to send the quarter-final into penalties.

After an impressive four penalty saves by Williams, Bafana Bafana secured their place in the semi-finals for the first time since 2000 where they will meet Nigeria.

Post-match reactions:

Hugo Bruce – South African coach

“When we got to the penalty shootout, it was a special thing for the players, because during training they were scoring them. When we have a goalkeeper who stops 4 penalty kicks, this is not luck but a lot of hard work.

Not many people in South Africa believed in this team, but we believed in it, and the players believed in themselves as well. Reaching the semi-finals is in itself a good thing for South African football.

There was a lot of pressure in the match. Everyone wanted to qualify. This match was unlike the previous ones. We did not show the same performance as we had in previous matches.

The semi-final match will be different against Nigeria, which has good players like Lookman. We will not lose focus. The players will be in good condition, so we need to rest and recover to start our preparation”.

Bobista – Cape Verde coach

“Congratulations to South African. We wanted to win the match, but this is football. In my opinion, we had several chances to win this match. We have a good team, and we also faced a good competitor. We had several chances to kill the match, but we were not able to.

We had a good journey, and we also deserved to be in the semi-finals. Our people will be happy with what we presented in the competition.

We were the best in some phases of this match, and you know in such competitions, when you fail to score it will be complicated, and as for penalty kicks, sometimes there is luck.

The players who took the penalties are the best in our team, but when you are tired it is difficult. I am proud of our players, they showed their character.” (CAFonline)