Editor’s Note: It is no longer news that Sunday Ogorchukwu Oliseh is coach of the Super Eagles. However, what can be regarded as newsworthy will be, if the one time Super Eagles midfield talisman can restore the team’s long lost sobriquet.
In this piece, Nomso Obiajuru takes a look at Oliseh track records prior his call to duty as coach of the Super Eagles, with a conclusive evaluation on if the NFF made the right decision.
This article expresses the author’s opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Naij.com or its editors.
Story highlights:
Experience or Edification, what will do the magic for Sunday Oliseh?
Temperament or Thirst, what path will Sunday Oliseh accept?
Results or Regrets, what would be the end point?
Naij.com – Before his appointment as head coach of the Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh ran a consultancy firm that trains and assesses coaches worldwide.
He is a football blogger, a TV analyst, a multilingual speaker (Dutch, French, Italian and English), a business management diploma holder in Business Management, not leaving out a UEFA Pro Licence certificate holder.
Tell me, what more can you expect from a man who will only be 41-year-old two months from now?
Oliseh’s quest for education has helped him achieved the ultimate dream as he takes the reins of Nigeria’s national football team.
His love for academic excellence guided him through a journey from a footballer to analyst and now to a professional coach.
According to Amaju Pinnick, the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Coach Sunday Oliseh is African version of former FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
Pinnick who spoke at the official presentation of Oliseh to the media as the chief coach of the national team said: “Let me tell you that we are just presenting to you the Pep Guardiola of Africa, we are very excited because we know as a federation that Sunday Oliseh will deliver, the federation has been working as a team and we met till about 5am this morning before going to bed and I believe that after the meeting yesterday members of the technical committee and members of the executive committee did not have any choice but to do what we are doing right now.”
Prior to Oliseh’s official presentation, Pinnick had defended the NFF choice of Oliseh,
According to him (Pinnick), the best experience needed to do the job as head coach of the super eagles was that of intellectual capacity, which Oliseh rightly possesses.
He said: “I absolutely feel that we have made the right choice by picking Oliseh to handle the Super Eagles. In this age of technological advancement, we must start doing things differently. We need a coach with sound intellectual capacity and one who has the highest coaching certificate (UEFA Pro License). He is working with FIFA at the technical study group. The world recognises him and FIFA even recommended him. He has the passion to coach the Eagles and that is also important for us.
“On his lack of experience, Nigerians must realise that he’s not the first to be first named in the world. Berti Vogts and Juergen Klinsmann didn’t have experience when they were appointed, so why the noise about Oliseh.”
However, it should be noted that apart from Sunday Oliseh, 2 other Nigerians have this UEFA Pro license namely: Mutiu Adepoju and Emmanuel Amunike.
For Sunday Oliseh, the journey to acquire the UEFA Pro license started in 2007. He finished the program in 2011 amongst his classmates which include; Gianfranco Zola, Roberto di Matteo and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Although, Oliseh is a smart and thorough person who understands the game of football, the difference between a player and a coach should never be misjudged.
On April 1, 2009, Newcastle United, appointed a club legend, Alan Shearer to take over as manager after a desperate run of form under the caretaker manager, Chris Hughton.
However, the almighty Shearer would fall flat as Newcastle in the same season, were relegated to the Championship.
Same goes for Manchester United legend, Solskjaer who was on January 2, 2014, announced as first team manager of Cardiff City. Despite Solskjaer’s appointment and optimism, Cardiff continually struggled for points and was relegated back to the Championship following a 3-0 away defeat to Newscastle. At the end of the season, Cardiff finished 20th, collecting only 7 wins and 30 points. Solskjaer departed on September 18, 2014 following Cardiff City’s poor run of form in the Championship.
We all know Sunday Oliseh was up to the task when he was handed the captain armband of the Super Eagles in 1999. However, what remains unkwown will be, if Sunday Oliseh has what it takes to head the Nigeria’s national football team.
Moving on, in March 2004, Oliseh was sacked by Borussia Dortmund after punching a teammate Vahid Hashemian while on loan at VFL Bochum. He also retired from the squad to the 2002 World Cup for disciplinary issues with many in the Federation vowing never to work with him again as he is said to be a difficult character. Now the question is, will a “stubborn” Oliseh be able to handle players and colleagues without losing his temper on the field of play or even with members of the NFF?
However, on a second thought, the passion he (Oliseh) brought into the game during his playing days can never be overlooked. In 2000, Oliseh was down with malaria, but begged to be introduced in a game against the Teranga Lions of Senegal with Nigeria trailing by a lone goal with less than 45 minutes to go.
Oliseh will have his wish granted by then super eagles coach, Dutchman Bonfrere Jo. Moments after his introduction, two assist from the super eagles midfield talisman to Julius Aghahowa secured a 2-1 win for the eagles and a semi-final showdown with South Africa.
Nigeria will however lose in the final of the tournament to Cameroon on penalty shootout and again Sunday Oliseh showed his passion for the game when he was disconsolate after receiving his runners-up medal.
Yes! Oliseh may be stubborn but he has the passion for the game and must choose the right path to follow in carrying out his duties as head coach.
However, In January 2015, Oliseh had earlier publicly scorned at the job as super eagles head coach before his appointment.
At a lecture, he said that so many people have asked him why he does not want to coach the Super Eagles and his reply has always been, “I want to live long.”
Now the question is; what changed between January and July?
What will however drive the attention of Nigerians away from Oliseh’s utterance will be Results. If Oliseh gets the results, he would certainly give no rooms for Regrets.
For a team that was demoted 14 places to the 57th position on FIFA ranking table, Oliseh certainly has a herculean task ahead of him but we hope the one time Super Eagles midfield talisman can restore the team’s long lost sobriquet.
No comments:
Post a Comment