Nigeria name Sweden´s Lagerback as new coach

Swede Lars Lagerback, has been named as Nigeria’s coach on a five-month contract through until the World Cup in South Africa, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) announced on Saturday.

The 61-year-old was interviewed on Friday and named after a meeting of the NFF board here early Saturday.

He takes over from Shuaibu Amodu, who was sacked after Nigeria lost 1-0 to Ghana in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals last month.

Lagerback began work with the Sweden Football Association in 1990, concentrating on the the country’s junior teams.

In 1996, he took over the Sweden B team and stayed there until 1998 when Tommy Soderberg took him on as assistant coach for Sweden.

In 2000, he was promoted to the position of joint-coach, a responsibility he would share with Soderberg until 2004.

Under his guidance, Sweden qualified for Euro 2000, but lost in the group stages. In 2002, he led Sweden to the World Cup, where they lost to Senegal.

Sweden then qualified for Euro 2004 reaching the quarterfinals where they lost to the Netherlands and two years later Lagerback took Sweden to their fourth consecutive championship, the first time in their history.

Under Lagerback Sweden also qualified for Euro 2008 where they were eliminated in the group stage after losing 2-0 to Russia.

Lagerback resigned after failing to qualify Sweden for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa where Nigeria have been grouped with Argentina, Greece and South Korea.