Siasia Narrates Experience As Super Eagles Coach After Oliseh’s Departure

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Sports News Monday, April 22nd, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Former Nigerian footballer and coach, Samson Siasia, has opened up concerning his experience as the head coach of the Super Eagles after taking over from Sunday Oliseh in 2016.

In a podcast with ex-international Emmanuel Babayaro and journalist Matthew Edafe on Saturday, Siasia talked about the circumstances surrounding his appointment and the challenges he faced in his brief tenure.

“Oliseh ran away. He’s been a runner since… Like Ben Johnson, what do you call him? Yes, here I was coaching the Olympic team. Oliseh said he no do again, saying he don move. Why? We don’t know,” Siasia said speaking about Oliseh’s sudden resignation as the Super Eagles coach.

According to him, he was initially reluctant to take over the national team, saying, “They said, coach, you go take over. I said take over what? they said Super Eagles, I said no I don’t want to. I said I didn’t want to because that’s not my team. I cannot get control of that team in two weeks. In two weeks you are playing against Egypt.”

However, he was persuaded by Shuaibu Amodu, who cited health issues, Siasia decided to take on the role. “I said, you? What are you? You are a coach. Go and coach the team. He (Amodu) said, no. I have a heart problem. I said, you wan make I get one too? He was like, no we don’t have another person but only you.”

Speaking on the challenges of leading the team on such short notice, Siasia said: “I now said Okay, Because we don’t have another person, make I go do rescue mission. We tried though, the last minute, they (Egypt) come score us.”

Reminiscing on the tenure, Siasia stated that he introduced players like Alex Iwobi, saying, “It was the first time (Alex) Iwobi played for us. So we wanted to tie him down, instead of allowing him to go and play for England.”

Speaking concerning if he would have done better if given more time, Siasia responded, “They never give Nigerian people 4 years. You lose one match and they fire you, but that’s the truth”.

“The white people will come, you give them, you pay them more money. They don’t send us anywhere (to learn coaching courses), and they want us to be better.”