A glimpse into four shortlisted candidates for the Super Eagles

We continue our up close and personal with the four shortlisted coaches that will take over the coaching job of the senior men national football team of Nigeria.

The Super Eagles is not just a football national team, but a brand that possesses best quality professional footballets who ply their trade home and abroad.

A coach that manages must have the technical know how and absolute control of the team, not a coach that will under any influence because that is what managers that has the grace to coach the team have been experiencing for some years.

But let’s get back to our second up close and personal.

Few Nigerians 🇳🇬 (not indomie generation) will quickly know the name Philip Cocu, he is regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generations

The defensive came into the European scene in 1995, he joined PSV Enhdioven where he won the KNVB Cup and the Eredivisie title in 1997. Cocu played for Barcelona between 1998 and 2004. There, he would become club captain, win La Liga in 1999 and play two Champions League semi-finals. He left the club in 2004 as club record holder for the most league appearances by a foreign player. During Cocu’s second stint at PSV, he won another three Eredivisie titles and reached the Champions League semi-finals. After a year at Al Jazira, Cocu retired from professional football.

Cocu debuted for the Netherlands national team in 1996 and appeared at the 1998 World Cup, scoring two goals but missing a penalty in the semi-finals against Brazil. He also played at the 2006 World Cup, as well as the 1996, 2000 and 2004 European Championships. Cocu reached the semi-finals in the latter two tournaments and in 2004, he served as captain of the Dutch team. With 101 caps, Cocu is eighth on the list of most Dutch international appearances. During his career, he mainly played as a defensive “playmaker” in midfield, but became equally known for his ability to be fielded as a defender, wing back, winger or forward.

After his retirement from playing professional football, Cocu joined PSV again as youth coach and later assistant manager. He also served as assistant at the Dutch team under Bert van Marwijk between 2008 and 2012. Cocu was caretaker manager at PSV in 2012, during which he won the KNVB Cup. In 2013, he was officially appointed as PSV manager and won three league titles in his five years at the club.

In 2019, Cocu became English Championship side Derby County

He guided Derby to a 10th-place finish, whilst installing a sense of total football locally known as Cocuball. On 14 November 2020, Cocu and Derby parted ways with the club.