After 22 months as the head coach of Super Eagles, the Nigeria national team, Jose Peseiro’s reign has come to an end after the Nigeria Football Federation decided not to extend his contract.

This came despite Nigeria’s performance at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast where the Eagles finished second.

Mr Peseiro’s initial contract with the NFF expired September last year but was later extended until the end of the 2023 AFCON after the Portuguese agreed to reduce his salary from $70,000 to $50,000.

There was also a semi-final benchmark at the tournament for the possibility of him staying beyond the AFCON.

However, it seems like the NFF has another plan for the national team as they decided against renewing Mr Peseiro’s contract even after surpassing the semi-final benchmark.

Prior to the AFCON, Mr Peseiro was not close to being fans’ favourite due to the team’s difficulties in winning games convincingly despite the West African country being in possession of numbers of good footballers.

The lack of trust in his coaching capabilities among football fans at home reached its peak after Nigeria’s bad start to the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in which the Eagles drew their first two matches against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

Surprisingly, Mr Peseiro figured it out after the first AFCON  game against Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria went ahead to reach the final of the tournament leaving many in awe.

Meanwhile, as he was gradually winning the hearts of Nigeria fans over courtesy of the feat at the AFCON, Mr Peseiro’s time as Eagles’ head coach came to an end after 22 matches.

He won 11 of those games, drew four and lost seven.

Nevertheless, irrespective of the opinion people may have about his competency to lead the Eagles, Mr Peseiro left a lasting legacy as part of the small group of coaches who have powered Nigeria to a medal position at any AFCON tournament.

Super Eagles have had more than 30 head coaches since AFCON began in 1957 but only 11 of them have so far been able to win a medal with the Nigeria senior team.

Tiko Jelisavcic set the precedent after he led Nigeria to their first-ever AFCON medal after finishing third in the 1976 edition of the continental tournament before repeating the feat again in 1978.

In the following edition in 1980, Brazilian manager, Otto Gloria, guided Nigeria to their first-ever triumph at the AFCON and remains till date one of the three head coaches to reach that landmark with the Eagles. 

Four years later, Festus Onigbinde became the first indigenous coach to win an AFCON medal. He led Nigeria to the 1984 AFCON final but lost 3-1 to Cameroon.

In 1988, Manfred Höner was in charge when Nigeria won the silver medal, joining the exclusive club.

Dutch manager Clemens Westerhof won every medal when he was in charge of the Nigeria national team within three AFCON tournaments. In the 1990 edition, he helped Nigeria secure a silver medal finish before clinching the bronze medal in the following edition.

He finally laid his hands on the ultimate prize after Nigeria conquered the continent for the second time in 1994, making him the best performing Super Eagles head coach in the history of AFCON.

Nigeria’s Olympic-winning coach Jo Bonfrere is rightfully part of the group following his success at the 2000 AFCON in which Nigeria finished second, an achievement which came four years after the Dutchman famously led Nigeria to gold at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.

Shuaibu Amodu’s name is also penned in Eagles’ history book as of the team’s AFCON medal-winning coach. The former Shooting Stars manager won the AFCON bronze medal twice as Eagles’ manager in the 2006 and 2010 edition of the tournament.

As the head coach, Christian Chukwu led Nigeria to third place finish at the 2004 AFCON, handing a spot among the group of medal winners.

Stephen Keshi’s name is arguably one of the first names that would strike the hearts of football lovers in Nigeria when discussing AFCON winning coaches after the ex-international led Nigeria to win the 2013 AFCON title in South Africa.

It is Nigeria’s last AFCON title till date.

He became the first Nigerian coach to win an AFCON title. Mr Keshi also matched Egyptian Mahmoud El Gohary’s record as the only two players to win the tournament as a player and coach in the history of AFCON.

Sadly, he died of a heart attack in 2016 at the age of 54.

Gernot Rohr has a spot in the exclusive list as the German was the one in charge of the team when Nigeria finished third at the 2019 AFCON in Egypt. 

That was Nigeria’s last AFCON medal before Mr Peseiro’s Nations Cup achievement with the team in Ivory Coast.