National Teams
Sunday Oliseh reveals three troublesome players NFF warned him about
By Monsurah Olatunji
Former Nigeria coach Sunday Oliseh has disclosed that upon his appointment, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) warned him about three senior players causing disruptions within the team.
These players were John Mikel Obi, Emmanuel Emenike, and Vincent Enyeama as the NFF advised Oliseh to consider removing these players from the squad.
Instead, Oliseh chose to speak with each of them individually before making any decisions. He found Emmanuel Emenike to be receptive, but neither Mikel nor Enyeama were cooperative.
Within his first month in charge, Vincent Enyeama retired from the team, and Mikel’s behavior became increasingly problematic.
Oliseh emphasized the need for strong leadership as a coach, stating that his principles and strong personality made it challenging for some players to accept his authority. He accused certain stars of lacking commitment.
“When I was signed to coach the Super Eagles, they told me that they had not qualified because they were having problems with certain players,” Oliseh said in an interview with Matthew Edafe of Elegbete TV.
“These players also had problems with Keshi, and that’s why Nigeria did not qualify [for AFCON 2015]. Now what I told them was, ‘You know, I myself as a former captain, I know NFF is not easy,’ so I told them to let me talk to the players. Let me talk to them. Let me try to get them on board. Let me share my philosophy with them and let’s see how it goes.”
Oliseh recounted his efforts to connect with Enyeama: “When this happened, what I did was call the captain of the team, which was Enyeama. I took my own car and drove almost 200 km to his place with my assistant coach. Took him out to lunch, paid for it, watched him train in the morning, spoke to his coach, spent a whole day with my captain and spoke to him and gave him the philosophy of how it was going to be.”
Regarding Emenike, Oliseh expressed his regret over his resignation: “The biggest regret as Super Eagles coach was when Emenike called me and said ‘I am retiring as a national team player.’ Working with Emenike was one of the best experiences I had as a Super Eagles coach. He was a great guy. He was a nice guy.
“And when I saw what some media people had written about this boy, I was shocked because I could speak with Emenike, he was willing, but he felt he could not take it anymore. He said, ‘Coach, no, I have to stop.’ That is why I am so happy each time I see Emenike doing well… it was totally opposite of what some people at the NFF had told me about him.”
Oliseh detailed the issues he had with Enyeama: “I had problems with Enyeama. Just before the game against Tanzania, we were playing the game on Friday, everybody came into camp. On Wednesday, the man was still not there, only to phone us on Wednesday evening that he wanted to bury his mother, who had died three months ago.
“We had to rush in and go into that game; we were lucky we got a draw and I had already invited Karl Ikeme. Well, the story is history now. Ikeme was unbelievably good, so we were able to survive.”
Oliseh eventually resigned, citing “the inability of the NFF to honor the terms of his contract.”
