By Bunmi Ogunyale and Bolaji Okunola 

The man Jose Paseiro’ whose name is yet to ring a bell in the ears of soccer loving Nigerians, has been handed a chance to guide the Super Eagles to the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nation in Cameroon. 

If he does well, he will become the 48th handler and the first coach of the Nigeria national team to have come from Portugal.  

It was gathered that the Portuguese who last managed  Venezuelan national team before stepping down in August 2021, was recommended to the NFF by erstwhile Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho.

Paseiro, 61, resigned as Venezuela coach after working for over a year with out being paid. He led Venezuela to the 2021 Copa America where he lost 2 games and drew 2 games which wasn’t enough to make it out of the group stage. 

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The manager who is currently the 26th foreign coach appointed by the NFF since 1949, had a stint with the Saudi Arabia national team from February 18- January 10, 2011. 

He was a former Coach at Sporting Lisbon, a team he led to a 3rd place finish in the league in 2004/2005 season and finished 2nd in the UEFA Cup in the same year.

He worked as an Assistant Coach to Carlos Quiroz at Real Madrid in 03/04 season and also took charge of Al-Ahly of Egypt where he won 8 out of the 12 games he took charge of.

Mourinho and Peseiro were colleagues during a managerial course before starting their respective careers, where ex-Zamalek boss Nelo Vingada was their lecturer.

Before then, he played as a forward for Portugal in his heydays. He retired at age 34 at the end of 1993-94 season in the forth division, with local club Uniao de Santerem. Checking his shelve, he  only won the Egyptian Premier League with Al Ahly.