Nigeria Joint 48th In The Ranking Of Number Of Coaches In Foreign Leagues

Neuchâtel-based organization, the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), has published the demographic analysis of  professional football coaches in the world, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

The study analyzed the characteristics of the coaches at the head of 1,646 teams from 110 leagues in 79 countries worldwide, and covers three aspects: the age, the length of stay in the club managed and the origin (national/expatriate).

In the rankings of the most represented origins among expatriate coaches of 1,875 clubs from 128 leagues in 91 countries, Nigeria occupied the 48th position alongside Albania, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Morocco and Tajikistan with two expatriate coaches.

Though the identities of the Nigerian coaches managing foreign clubs as at June 1, 2020 have not been revealed, one of the leagues analyzed was the Albanian Superliga.

Retired Super Eagles goalkeeper Ndubuisi Egbo, who also holds an Albanian passport, is the current coach of table-topping KF Tirana, taking over from Julian Ahmataj in December 2019 following a poor start to the 2019-2020 season.

Argentina is the most representative nation with 68 coaches, followed by Spain (41), Serbia (34), Germany (27), Italy (27) and Portugal (25).

Ifeanyi Emmanuel