Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle and goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali have been omitted from the shortlists for the 2026 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards in the Coach of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year categories.
CAF unveiled the nominees for the annual awards, with 10 candidates shortlisted in each category.
Chelle, who has been in charge of Nigeria’s senior men’s team, did not make the Coach of the Year shortlist.
The nominees include Senegal’s Lamine Ndiaye and Pape Thiaw, Cape Verde’s Bubista, DR Congo’s Sébastien Desabre, Egypt’s Hossam Hassan and Moatamed Gamal, as well as Portuguese coaches Alexandre Santos and Miguel Cardoso.
Morocco’s Mohamed Ouahbi and Walid Regragui complete the list.
Nwabali was also overlooked in the Goalkeeper of the Year category despite his contributions to the Super Eagles.
The shortlist features Morocco’s Yassine Bounou and Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti, Senegal’s Edouard Mendy, South Africa’s Ronwen Williams and Egypt’s Mostafa Shobeir.
Other nominees are Algeria’s Oussama Benbot, Cape Verde’s Vozinha, Ivory Coast’s Yahia Fofana, DR Congo’s Lionel Mpasi and Egypt’s El Mahdy Soliman.
The omissions mean Nigeria will have no representative in either the Coach of the Year or Goalkeeper of the Year category at the 2026 CAF Awards.
