Nine players were in camp at Ikenne-Remo by Monday morning. Farida AbdulWahab, Joy Igbokwe, Christiana Uzoma and six others had reported early, with the foreign-based stars due later. Augustine Eguavoen had his first group to work with.
| Super Falcons coach | Augustine Eguavoen, interim |
| Appointed | 8 September 2026 |
| Predecessor | Justine Madugu, relieved 17 August 2026 |
| Day job | NFF technical director since 2020 |
| Born | 19 August 1965, Sapele |
| As a player | 49 caps, 1994 Nations Cup winner |
| Salary | Not published |
Friday brings Comoros, in the first leg of a Los Angeles 2028 Olympic qualifier at the Remo Stars Stadium, with the return on 13 October. It is also the first time Eguavoen, 61, has managed a women's team.
So the honest answer to the question many fans are typing into search bars is this: the Super Falcons coach in October 2026 is not Justine Madugu but a man from the 1994 generation of the Super Eagles, borrowed from his day job at the Glass House.
Fourteen months from Rabat to the exit door
Rabat, July 2025. The Falcons trailed Morocco 2-0 at half time in the delayed final of WAFCON 2024, then won 3-2 for a tenth continental crown. “Going 2-0 down in the first half? That was the biggest test. We believed in ourselves,” Madugu said afterwards.
The NFF rewarded him with a two-year deal running from 1 October 2025 to October 2027.
It did not last.
At WAFCON 2026 in Morocco the Falcons lost their opening game to debutants Malawi. Cameroon then beat them 1-0 in the quarter-finals, and South Africa won the World Cup play-off 2-1. Nigeria, ever-present at the Women's World Cup since 1991, will not be in Brazil in 2027. On 17 August the NFF Executive Committee asked “members of the technical crew of the @NGSuper_Falcons to step down with immediate effect”. Madugu and his assistant Ann Chiejine were gone.
From Sapele to Gent and the 1994 squad
Eguavoen was born in Sapele and played as a right wing back. He left ACB Lagos for Belgium in 1986 and spent four seasons at Gent. Later stops followed in Spain, the United States, Russia and Malta before he retired in 2001. For Nigeria he won 49 caps between 1987 and 1998 and scored once. In 1994 he was in the squad that won the Nations Cup, then reached the World Cup round of 16 with Jay Jay Okocha and Sunday Oliseh.
Respect, mostly. That is how Nigerian fans see him.
The NFF's favourite stand-in
One word runs through his coaching life. Vanguard built a whole column around it last month, headlined “When Interim Becomes an Identity”.
| Period | Role | Notable result |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Golden Eaglets | Bronze at the African U-17 Championship |
| 2005 to 2007 | Super Eagles | Bronze at AFCON 2006 in Egypt |
| 2008 to 2009 | Enyimba | Federation Cup winner |
| 2010 to 2011 | Nigeria U-23 | Missed London 2012 qualification |
| 2020 onwards | NFF technical director | Long-term federation post |
| 2021 to 2022 | Super Eagles (interim) | AFCON round of 16 exit to Tunisia; World Cup play-off loss to Ghana |
| 2024 | Super Eagles (interim) | Took over after Bruno Labbadia's withdrawal |
| 2026 | Super Falcons (interim) | Olympic qualifiers v Comoros |
The 2024 spell was the most turbulent. Bruno Labbadia had agreed to take the Eagles. Then he backed out over a tax dispute, and Eguavoen was handed AFCON qualifiers against Benin and Rwanda at a few days' notice. After a goalless draw in Kigali he had to deny reports that he had resigned. “I am still very much in charge,” he told reporters.
For the Falcons he has company. Christopher Danjuma of Nasarawa Amazons assists him. So does Ayisat Yusuf, a former Falcons defender with 68 caps who played at Beijing 2008. Olatunji Baruwa trains the goalkeepers. The 28-player list, led by captain Rasheedat Ajibade, can be measured against the Super Falcons' greatest players and the all-time top scorers.
What is the Super Falcons coach salary?
No figure has been published. The NFF has not released the terms of Eguavoen's interim arrangement, and his technical director's pay has never been made public. Madugu's contract was announced without a salary figure either.
The men's side is different. In June 2026 Sports Commission chairman Shehu Dikko said of Eric Chelle: “we are going to increase his money”. Pulse Sports reported the monthly salary rising from $50,000 to $100,000, which at the official rate of about ₦1,328 to the dollar on 2 October 2026 is roughly ₦66.4 million before and ₦132.8 million a month now.
| Coach | Team | Published monthly pay |
|---|---|---|
| Eric Chelle | Super Eagles | $100,000 (about ₦132.8m) |
| Justine Madugu (until Aug 2026) | Super Falcons | Not published |
| Augustine Eguavoen (interim) | Super Falcons | Not published |
The full breakdown is on our Super Eagles coach salary page.
Our view
“He is only for the Comoros match and hopefully by then we would have decided on a new head coach for the Falcons,” an unnamed senior NFF official told Score Nigeria.
That sentence says more about the federation than about the coach. Comoros, ranked 187th in the world, beat Sudan 30-0 on aggregate to get here and should not trouble a Nigeria side ranked 36th, but the Olympic road runs through several more two-legged rounds, and nobody yet knows who will lead the Falcons beyond next Tuesday. What the women's game here has lacked since August is a plan with a name and a contract attached.
Africa's champions of fourteen months ago deserve one. Soon.
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 hours ago
