Exciting times are ahead for Nigerian football as Eric chelle steps into a big role! This 47-year-old coach from Mali is ready to take on a major challenge as he prepares the Super Eagles for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers starting in March. What makes this moment even more special is that Chelle is making history as the first African coach from outside Nigeria to lead the team.
Chelle caught the eye of the Nigerian Football Federation when he helped Mali pull off a stunning victory against Nigeria last year. Now, after the heartbreak of missing the last World Cup in Qatar, the NFF is counting on him to help the Super Eagles soar back to the global stage next year.
However, Chelle won’t have an easy ride. The team is currently struggling, having not won any of their first four games in Group C. This has led to some backlash, with critics saying his appointment feels like a “slap in the face” to local coaches.
Chelle has been painted as a “nice, respectful, and polite” guy, but he’s also seen as “a true warrior” and a driven coach by a sports expert who’s watched his journey. After leading Mali to the quarter-finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the big question is: can he motivate one of Africa’s top football teams to reach even greater heights?
Chelle, who hails from the beautiful Ivory Coast and has a French dad and a Malian mom, kicked off his football journey in France. He started playing in the lower leagues with a club called Martigues.
After some solid performances, he made his way to Valenciennes, where he played a crucial role in clinching two league titles in a row, allowing the team to reach the big leagues in 2006. But after a couple of years, he took a step back and joined Lens in the second division.
His new adventure turned out to be a fantastic one, as Lens snagged the title in his very first season there! Thanks to his impressive skills, Chelle even earned a spot in the Ligue 2 team of the year. What a way to make a mark in the world of football!
“Eric works with discipline and rigour,” Malian sports journalist Salif Diakite told BBC Sport Africa.
“He has the fighting spirit [and] wants to win all his matches. He aspired to become a football coach.
“He quickly hung up his boots to devote himself to his coaching career. I’m not surprised to see Eric becoming [a] coach.”
Chelle kicked off his journey back in 2014, landing a role as an assistant at GS Consolat, which is now called Athletico Marseille, a club that plays in the French amateur leagues. In 2017, he returned to Martigues to take the reins as head coach. Fast forward to May 2021, and he made his way to Boulogne. However, his time there didn’t last long—just seven months—after the team only managed to snag one win in ten matches.
“Eric is a quiet coach out of the pitch, but on the pitch he is tough with his players,” Diakite added.
After making his mark in the lower leagues of French football, Chelle was ready for a new challenge. In May 2022, he was named the head coach of the Mali national team, beating out big names like former Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr and ex-Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer for the job.
Though he only played five times for Mali between 2004 and 2006 and never got to experience the thrill of a major tournament, Chelle believed he had what it took to lead his home country.
“It is definitely a big challenge and I do like to challenge myself,” he said after joining the Eagles.
Mali certainly made a splash in qualifying for the 2023 AFCON, only dropping one game and racking up an impressive 13 goals to end up as the second-highest scorers. With an attacking style and a 4-3-3 formation, coach Chelle had a talented team but couldn’t push them past the quarter-finals in the tournament. It was a tough loss to the Ivory Coast, the hosts. Just when it looked like Mali had victory in their hands, the Elephants managed to score a last-minute equalizer before sealing the win in the dying minutes of extra time.
Things didn’t get better during the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. After a shaky start, with just one win out of four matches, the Malian Football Federation decided to part ways with Chelle last June. Diakite mentioned that this move didn’t sit well with many fans and even some players in the squad.
“Most Malian football fans believed that Eric could do something with Eagles,” he explained.
“[He] had a very good relationship with his players. When he was sacked, some of his players had refused to come to the national team.”
After leaving Mali, Chelle’s journey took a bit of a detour with a brief and not-so-great experience at the Algerian club MC Oran. But now, she’s stepping up to the big leagues, taking the reins of Nigeria’s national team—the Super Eagles! These guys have an impressive history, having claimed the continental championship three times, and they were runners-up in the recent 2023 AFCON.
Fans had their hopes set on a big-name coach, so you can bet Diakite feels the weight of that expectation.
“I understand the feeling of Nigerian football fans,” he said.
“He (Chelle) is a young coach. His record is blank [at] the moment, but he is ambitious.”
The last six matches in the World Cup qualifiers are going to be super important in figuring out if Chelle will stay on as coach for the 2025 Afcon, starting in December. However, Diakite believes we need to be patient and give it some time.
“Malian football fans have a lot of admiration for Eric Chelle.
“I hope that he will have the same consideration in Nigeria.”
Chelle could be the one in charge of Nigeria’s team at the upcoming African Nations Championship, which is all about homegrown players. NFF president Ibrahim Gusau mentioned that the new coach for the Super Eagles will take the helm for this tournament. The goal is to bring more players from the Nigerian Premier League into the main national team.
“Eric used to follow the local league (Mali Premier Division) a lot. We always found a local player in his national team,” Diakite explained.
To truly impress the passionate fans and bring success to the Super Eagles, Chelle will need to tap into all the sk
ills and knowledge he’s picked up along the way.
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