hot nigeria info.

Samson Siasia has been named the new coach of Nigeria by the NIgeria Football Federation in Abuja on Thursday evening.

The 43 year-old tactician is expected to begin his job on December 1. Siasia was favoured over former team mate Stephen Keshi, with the two former Super Eagles players put under the microscope to find the best possible candidate to take over at a difficult time for the side.

Nigeria have struggled lately in competitions and qualifying for the African Cup of Nations tournaments and the World Cup in 2010, where they did not progress past the group stage.

Siasia has been successful with the country's U20 and U23 sides winning silver medals at the World Youth Championships and the Beijing Olympics.

"He was the obvious choice based on his performance at the interview," Emmanuel Ikpeme, NFF secretary told the AFP.

Siasia is now expected to take charge of Nigeria's qualification for AFCON 2012 after their 1-0 loss to Guinea in October under interim coach Augustine Eguavoen.

Nigeria's next qualification game is in 2011, but Siasia will observe from the stands the friendly match with Iran on November 17 in Tehran.