By Uche Dozie, kick442.com
Former Nigeria coach, Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh — who led the Super Eagles from 2015 to 2016, has stated that he will not coach the national team again if given the second chance.
The former versatile midfielder, spoke with The Punch on Instagram live video chat where he said he loved coaching his country and working with the players but will not sacrifice his wellbeing in line for the job.
The Nigerian and African legend
”No, I don’t have the intention of ever coaching the (Super) Eagles again. I loved working with the boys, I love coaching my country, but the atmosphere around it was no longer healthy.
“I didn’t want the job anymore. Health-wise I was not feeling too good; secondly, we were owed salaries. I was spending money on my health and on my team. I just couldn’t die on the job.”
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The ex-player bemoaned the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) inability to pay him and his assistant salaries for four month despite winning trophies while playing for the country.
For him, he couldn’t stand the treatment at a point he was about to qualify the team for the World Cup.
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”Truth is, we have a foreign coach now and from what I heard and know, he is being paid four times the wages Stephen Keshi and I were paid and these are two players (himself and Keshi) who won trophies for Nigeria.
“I’ve never heard Gernot Rohr complaining about wages. Keshi, while he was coaching, was always complaining.
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“I was coached for four months, I was unpaid, for six months my assistants were unpaid, so I had to leave the job; we were also being frustrated.”
Oliseh played 63 international matches for the Super Eagles scoring three goals.
Meanwhile, in the midst of Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr’s new contract hullabaloo, former Super Eagles technical adviser, Dutchman Clemens Westerhof has allegedly signified his interest to return to the job after leading the team to the Round of 16 during USA 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Clemens Westerhof
Westerhof left the team after Nigeria crashed out of the tournament.
A top NFF official told The Guardian on Monday that Westerhof signified his interest to return to the Super Eagles a few days ago.
“Can you believe that? Westerhof called that he wants to return as Technical Adviser. He said he would come with a youth coach.
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“But the question I asked him was ‘on what basis will the NFF appoint him as coach of Super Eagles after how many years he left the team.
Everybody wants to coach the Super Eagles because there are several people pushing their case in Nigeria. That won’t happen.”
Westerhof, former coach of Feyenoord Rotterdam, Vitesse Arnhem, Zimbabwe national team, the Sporting Lions of Zimbabwe’s Premier League, and the Bush Bucks and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa’s Premier Soccer League, led the Super Eagles to win the 1994 African Cup of Nations in Tunisia.
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He also took Nigeria to their inaugural FIFA World Cup in USA 1994 where they crashed out of the tournament in the Round of 16.
Kick442.com had earlier reported that Westerhof’s assistant coach in 1994, Johannes-Franciscus Bonfrere (Bonfrere Jo) claimed he sold Nigeria’s game against Italy at the country’s inaugural World Cup appearance.—Additional reporting by Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde, kick442.com