Eric Chelle has left Nigeria’s Olympic Eagles camp to focus on the Super Eagles, leaving assistant coach Deniran Ortega in charge of the U23 side for their 2027 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations qualifier against DR Congo.
The Chelle Olympic Eagles handover was confirmed by The PUNCH on Monday morning, with the report stating that the head coach has now stepped away from the U23 group to concentrate on the senior team’s AFCON 2027 qualifying double-header against Tanzania. It is the scheduling clash everyone around the Nigeria Football Federation saw coming — and it has arrived in the same week both teams play.
Chelle was handed both jobs under his current contract, coaching the Super Eagles and the Olympic Eagles at the same time. That dual responsibility worked while the two teams trained in different windows, but it could not survive this international break: the Olympic Eagles face DR Congo in Lubumbashi on Friday, 13 November, the very day the Super Eagles host Tanzania in Uyo, and the return legs also fall on the same day, Tuesday, 17 November.
Chelle Olympic Eagles: why the dates collided
The fixture clash is the heart of the problem. Both ties sit inside the 9–17 November international window, and one man cannot be on two touchlines at once. The NFF’s answer is a split arrangement: Chelle stays with the senior team in Uyo, while Ortega takes the Olympic Eagles to DR Congo.
Ortega is no stopgap. The 40-year-old is the Olympic Eagles’ first assistant coach, a UEFA-licensed coach who has worked with the home-based players since the U23 camp opened two weeks ago. He will be assisted by Ikorodu City head coach Bright Ozebagbe, and the pair have effectively been running the group already — according to ACLSports, Ortega handled most of the training sessions on Thursday and led the technical crew during Friday’s friendly win over Grassrunners.
Ortega steps up — and what he inherits
Ortega inherits a 23-man squad Chelle named on Sunday night, headlined by Brighton forward Zadok Yohanna and Molde midfielder Daniel Daga, with 16 foreign-based players and seven home-based players. The seven domestic players are due to depart Nigeria on Tuesday ahead of the first leg at the Stade TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi.
The stakes are high for a team playing without its head coach. Nigeria received a bye in the first qualifying round and must beat DR Congo over two legs to reach the final round of qualifying for the 2027 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt — a tournament that will also decide Africa’s representatives at the men’s football event of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
The return leg takes place at the Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne-Remo on Tuesday, 17 November, the same day the Super Eagles play their second game against Tanzania in Zanzibar. For Chelle, the next ten days will be a test of how well he can manage two national teams from one camp in Uyo. For Ortega, it is the biggest assignment of his coaching career so far — and a chance to prove the Olympic Eagles can win without their head coach on the touchline. For more on the qualifiers, check today’s predictions.
Photos: SportsBuddy graphic design — no licensed photograph of Eric Chelle or Deniran Ortega was available for this story.
