Manu Garba was named Nigeria Men’s U17 football team coach, Friday, to replace Nduka Ugbade after the team’s unsuccessful Africa Cup of Nations campaign last year.

Garba returns to the position for a third stint and on the strength of his achievement back in 2013, when he guided the Eaglets to Nigeria’s fourth World Cup title – incidentally Ugbade was his assistant.

Subsequent appointments as the U20 MNT (2015) and a return to the U17 (2019) job didn’t quite go as expected.

While he’s one of Nigeria’s foremost youth coaches Manu Garba’s appointment can be seen as a convenient choice for the NFF.

There was an open application process for the role and resumés were sent in by candidates including Coaches based outside Nigeria.

After all, in recent times the same Federation has recycled coaches at the U20 and U23 levels with very little to show.

Nonetheless, the 58 year-old will get right to work and commence the assemblage of players for qualifiers to the 2025 FIFA U17 World Cup in Qatar.