Former Super Eagles midfielder Sylvanus Okpala has criticised ex-Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick for backing Eric Chelle to continue as head coach of the national team, Soccernet.ng reports.
Despite public support rising for Chelle, Okpala insists that a Nigerian coach remains the best solution for the Super Eagles.
Okpala, a long-time advocate of indigenous coaches handling the national side, said he never supported the decision to appoint Chelle when the Malian was handed the job in January 2025. Although results under Chelle have been largely positive, the former international believes that progress should not overshadow what he views as a misplaced policy direction.
Twelve months into his tenure, Chelle is yet to lose a competitive match in regulation time with the Super Eagles.
However, he failed to guide Nigeria to qualification for the FIFA World Cup. At the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the Super Eagles finished third and were widely praised for their attacking football, scoring a tournament-high 14 goals and earning plaudits as one of the competition’s most entertaining teams.
Those performances prompted Pinnick to publicly suggest that Chelle should be allowed to remain in charge. He also argued that any Nigerian coach seeking the Super Eagles job should first prove himself by winning domestic league titles and continental honours with a Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) club.
It is a stance Okpala strongly disagrees with.
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What Okpala said about Eric Chelle
Speaking with Brila.net, Okpala questioned what he described as the recurring arguments used to sideline local coaches, insisting they are often inconsistent and unfair.
“All I can say is that it’s Nigerian coaches that will solve the Super Eagles problem. I’ve been saying it for maybe five years now,” Okpala said.
“I read again where someone said that if you want to coach the national team, you must have taken a club side to the continent and won the CAF Champions League.
“I started thinking—if that is the yardstick for coaching the Super Eagles, Eric Chelle is from Mali, so how many teams did he coach in Mali that won the CAF Champions League?”
Okpala’s comments come despite Chelle’s bronze-medal finish at AFCON 2025, a campaign that continues to divide opinion among fans and former players.
A respected figure in Nigerian football, Okpala was part of the Super Eagles squad that won the country’s first AFCON title in 1980. He also represented Nigeria at the Moscow 1980 and Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, and enjoyed a successful club career with Enugu Rangers, C.S. Marítimo and C.D. Nacional in Portugal.
In coaching, he served as assistant to the late Stephen Keshi and was part of the technical team that led Nigeria to AFCON glory in 2013, credentials he believes underline the depth of local coaching experience still being overlooked.
