Nigeria on Tuesday hired German coach Bruno Labbadia as coach of the men’s national football team in a bid to get its ailing World Cup qualification campaign back on track.

“The appointment is effective immediately,” said Mohammed Sanusi, general secretary of the Nigeria Football Association.

Labbadia, 58, has been unemployed since April 2023 after being sacked by VfB Stuttgart for failing to stop the club’s descent to the bottom of the Bundesliga table.

Nigeria are second to last in their qualifying group for the 2026 World Cup after failing to win any of their first four matches.

The Super Eagles played 1-1 draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in November last year before Portuguese coach José Peseiro led the team to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations. Nigeria lost the final to hosts Ivory Coast in February.

The NFF promoted Peseiro’s assistant Finidi George to the top position in April after the Portuguese left the club, but the former right winger was unable to improve the team’s chances of success in World Cup qualifying.

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George oversaw a 1-1 draw with South Africa, followed by a 2-1 defeat in Benin in June.

George is said to have subsequently resigned after not being informed of the NFF’s plans to appoint a technical adviser to oversee his work. The NFF has not publicly acknowledged the resignation.

In his second term as coach of VfB Stuttgart, Labbadia only managed two wins out of twelve games – one each in the league and in the DFB Cup.

His successor Sebastian Hoeneß ultimately saved Stuttgart from relegation and led the team to a club record points tally last season.

Labbadia previously coached Hertha Berlin, Wolfsburg, Hamburger SV, Bayer Leverkusen and Darmstadt. As a goal-scoring striker, he helped Bayern Munich and Kaiserslautern win the Bundesliga championship in the 1990s.

Labbadia’s first two games as Nigeria coach will be in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on September 7 and 10 against Benin and Rwanda.