Former Super Eagles midfielder Sylvanus Okpala has taken a swipe at ex–Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick for supporting Eric Chelle to continue as head coach of the national team.

Okpala, a long-time advocate for indigenous coaches, maintained that appointing a Nigerian remains the best path forward for the Super Eagles, regardless of the recent goodwill surrounding Chelle’s tenure.

The former international revealed he opposed Chelle’s appointment from the outset in January 2025 and believes positive results should not distract from what he sees as a flawed policy direction.

While acknowledging that the Malian coach has recorded largely impressive performances, Okpala argued that the bigger picture must not be ignored.
One year into the job, Chelle is yet to lose a competitive match in regulation time. 

However, he was unable to steer Nigeria to qualification for the FIFA World Cup. At the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the Super Eagles finished third, earning widespread praise for their attacking flair after scoring a tournament-high 14 goals and emerging as one of the competition’s most entertaining sides.
Those displays prompted Pinnick to publicly back Chelle to remain in charge.

He also suggested that any Nigerian coach aspiring to handle the Super Eagles should first prove himself by winning domestic league titles and continental honours with a Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) club.

Reacting to those comments in an interview with Brila.net, Okpala questioned what he described as inconsistent standards often used to sideline local coaches.

“All I can say is that it’s Nigerian coaches that will solve the Super Eagles problem. I’ve been saying it for maybe five years now,” Okpala said.

“I read again where someone said that if you want to coach the national team, you must have taken a club side to the continent and won the CAF Champions League.

“I started thinking—if that is the yardstick for coaching the Super Eagles, Eric Chelle is from Mali, so how many teams did he coach in Mali that won the CAF Champions League?”

Okpala’s remarks come despite Chelle’s bronze-medal finish at AFCON 2025, a campaign that continues to divide opinion among fans and former players.

A highly respected figure in Nigerian football, Okpala was a member of the Super Eagles team that won Nigeria’s first AFCON title in 1980. He also represented the country at the Moscow 1980 and Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, and enjoyed a successful club career with Enugu Rangers and Portuguese sides C.S. Marítimo and C.D. Nacional.

In coaching, he served as assistant to the late Stephen Keshi and was part of the technical crew that guided Nigeria to AFCON glory in 2013—credentials he believes highlight the depth of local coaching expertise that continues to be overlooked.