From all
indications, the
Nigeria Football Federation will name Sunday Oliseh the next Super Eagles coach.
The ex-Ajax and Juventus midfielder will always be fondly
remembered for that match-winning
thunderbolt goal against Spain.
It was at the 1998 World Cup and Andoni Zubizareta, La Furia Roja’s legendary
goalkeeper will remember the match with pain as Nigeria came from behind twice before Oliseh’s goal sealed a 3-2 victory.
The Nigeria Football Federation revealed on Wednesday that its president, Amaju Pinnick, met with Oliseh in London to set up a contract.
“An offer has been made, and there is understanding, but we have to work out the final details of
the agreement in a few days,” the NFF wrote.
Oliseh did not ‘chase’ the job
Oliseh has publicly scoffed at the job but Pinnick met with him on
Wednesday, after a previous meeting in November 2014, to finalise plans
for his unveiling.
As part of the proposal, “Oliseh is expected to come up with a
five–year developmental plan to fashion a unique playing and coaching
philosophy.”
Well, there we have it.
The question that many who have heard Oliseh speak in the years gone
by will be asking now is: “Why did he change his mind concerning the
national team job and why now?”
Oliseh, in January 2015, at a TED lecture, revealed that so many
people have asked him why he does not want to coach the Super Eagles and
his reply has always been, “I wanna live long.”
So what changed between January and July? It may be that he has
decided that it is better to live a short impactful life than one that
is long but with a lot of regrets.
“A man who wants to succeed should not do a lot to be loved but
should do a lot to be respected.” Oliseh had said in an interview in
2010.
Oliseh prides himself as an analyst
Another question that quickly follows is, will he be able to solve the tactical and
technical void that the Super Eagles have been bereft of in the last couple of years?
In that same lecture, Oliseh said: “Education from my school days was the difference in my life. It made it easy for me to
analyse.”
An analysis of the challenges that face the growth of the game in
Nigeria will show they are numerous. Worse still, the challenges have
now gone ‘viral’.
Oliseh revealed in one of his interviews that what happens in
the football house is ‘organised chaos’. “If things are done properly – in the right way, there will be no avenue for corruption.”
So, as an analytical person, has he found a way to negate this ‘organised chaos’ that he will definitely encounter on the job?
Yes, he has a
UEFA Pro
license, and he was in the same class with Manchester United legend, Ole
Gunnar Solskjaer, but has that prepared him for the unpredictability of
his employers and is that enough to guarantee success in the Super
Eagles job?
Renowned football commentator, Colin Udoh, believes the present NFF board led by Pinnick is doing things differently.
“This change in the way the NFF went about their business reflects a
growing if so far largely unacknowledged trend with this current
leadership.”
The NFF say they are ready to help him succeed
“A lot of the work being done has been geared toward long-term
capacity building and improvement of structures,” Udoh wrote on
espnsoccernet.com.
And the NFF are actually making all the right noises about implementing a plan for long-term gains.
So Oliseh should be backed to the hilt to succeed as summarised in
Shehu Dikko’s comment, “He [Oliseh] will receive every bit of support he
needs to make this work, because if he fails, we all fail.”
At this moment Oliseh must believe this statement that he made at the
TED lecture so hard that he could damn all the consequences. “If we
decide as a race that we want to succeed, nobody can stop us.”
Nobody can stop him but what the average Nigerian football fan
desires for the Super Eagles and all the national teams is success by
playing a fine brand of football.
Whether Oliseh, in his new capacity, will be able to deliver this is
another matter. If he does, it might well be that the ‘change’ Nigerians
seek in all spheres would also be visiting the football house.
