THE MANIFESTO: MY Coach For the Super Eagles -- Segun ODEGBAMI

[Enugu II]

My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami
23 March 9, 2024 5:00 am
My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami

I do not like to bring up the issue of coaches, because we forget easily.


Let us talk about a few foreign coaches since Clemens Westerhof, my friend, the acclaimed best coach in Nigeria’s history, was engaged to coach the national team in 1989.

Who was Clemens in the world of coaching when he was hired? Was he a world -class coach? What club or country of renown did he coach? What trophies of substance did he win?

The truth is that he was a nobody. Nobody knew him. How he was hired will make Jose Peseiro’s case look very good.

Clemens started rather poorly but ended after 5 years on a glorious note. Throughout that period, he enjoyed uncommon privileges, access to power and resources arranged by the interest that brought him into the system.

By 1994, at the end of the USA World Cup, so sour was his relationship with some players, some media, and even leadership of the football association that he abandoned the job and did not even bother to return to Nigeria. Thus ended his era.

Then, it was widely reported that he was not even the brain behind the success of the team on the field of play. A section of the media led public opinion in questioning his technical competence, crediting his success to his trainer/assistant, Jo Bonfrere.

That’s how, supported by some media, a trainer was elevated to national coach of Nigeria, in total betrayal of trust unknown in football at that level.

Jo Bonfrere was a ‘nobody’ as well in getting that job. He had no world-class credentials. Yet, he took a team brimming with exceptionally talented footballers to Atlanta ’96 and returned with an Olympic Gold medal. Like Westerhof before him, the Super Eagles were his launch pad to his coaching success and any credible credentials.

Incidentally, he too soon fell out with the authorities, and the cycle of foreign coaches continued intermittently after that, with occasional punctuations by Nigerian coaches for brief periods, until another foreign coach was hired to take the team to the 1998 World Cup.

Bora Milutinovic was the first ‘world-class’ coach to be hired by Nigeria. He was so ‘good’ that he was the only coach in the world at the time to have taken 4 national teams (none was African) to the World Cup. His tenure as Nigeria’s national team coach may probably be the worst in Nigeria’s history. He did not even return to Nigeria from his disastrous outing at France ’98. That much said for a ‘world-class’ coach.

Armchair critics, however, would have colourful answers to defend the tenures of all these White foreign coaches. Yet, Westerhof ‘failed’ at Algiers ‘90 (he did not win the trophy) before, 4 years later, with a team brimming with talent, he won AFCON.

Yet, they would also describe some of the Nigerian coaches that took over the national team on interim basis for a few weeks or months to AFCON (like Westerhof did in 1990), but ended without winning, as ‘failures’, never giving them a chance again.

Therefore, it is preposterous how a national team that was ranked 5th in the World in 1994, that won AFCON twice since then, could actually hire a foreign coach in 2023 and set a target of a semi-final berth at AFCON for him, when Nigeria should be aiming by now to win the World Cup. That’s Paseiro’s case.

Some things do not add up.

It is about ‘experts’ not understanding the dynamics of the world today and Nigeria’s place in it, and the interconnectivity with every facet of life, including football. The future of Nigeria hinges as much with the country’s economy, politics, etc as with its sports.

Victor Oladokun and I exchanged a few messages this week. I do not have his permission to quote him here, so I will not. But the following in my own response:

“There shall be a new World Order in the aftermath of the several wars going on dangerously around the world now. Africa must be ready, and Nigeria must take the lead in creating a united front for Africa, and negotiating from a position of strength. That’s where our soft-power ‘innocuous’ tools come into play to be deployed.

‘war’ must be fought cleverly, using unorthodox ‘weapons’. We have used conventional means for over 500 years and failed…time to think and strategize differently”.

The weapons I am referring to above are cultural tools – music, dance, film, fashion, and sports, areas that Africa can dominate, earn respect and relevance.

After 5 Centuries, Africa’s physical and mental enslavement and plundering of its mineral, spiritual, institutional, cultural and even human resources must stop. Africa is not ‘designed’ by other civilisations to succeed and thrive to become an advanced culture.

In the ongoing war of the Civilisations, nothing is exempt as a weapon. Indeed, advanced countries thrive only because they keep Third World countries down. Africa must break loose and be free from this stranglehold.

It has been clear for decades that the most populous Black nation on earth, rich and with some of the smartest and most educated people on earth doing great things in and for other countries around the world, should lead the African continent in negotiate Africa’s place in the new Scramble for Africa.

There is a change coming to the world and Africa must be an integral part of that change and an active participant in its own fate. Professor Patrice Lumumba of Kenya describes it as going to that Table of Civilisations not as waiters this time, but as diners, equal partners with other civilisations.

This must be fundamental to the decisions we all take from now onwards in all the things we do and the decisions we take.

That’s why we must shelve and sheath anything that portrays the Nigerian as inferior to any Race in all endeavours, because the Nigerian is not. He is found everywhere, in the arts and sciences, excelling. Coaching in football is not rocket science!

These days, without ‘foreign coaches’, Nigeria has conquered the once-exclusive world of music and dance. Film, fashion and the arts are fast catching up. Sport, the most powerful of them all, is still on the runway, waiting for the right buttons to be pressed in order to take off.

Nigeria must take the lead in Africa to deploy sport (football in particular) as an essential soft-power weapon to contribute its quota to determining the future of Africa. It is a responsibility that those of us in the sport industry must wear like a cloak every day, and remember in all our dealings with the rest of the world, including who we hire to coach one of our most visible and valuable assets to date in the world.

Nigeria’s ambition should match its talent and size.

Through the decades since 1985, we have seen the evidence that Nigeria can become the first African country to win the World Cup. Even the late legend, Pele, and other renowned coaches from other countries have expressed the same sentiment that Nigeria has the talent to win the World Cup before any other African country. But none of them said the country would do so by using foreign coaches. After all, they know that in history, no foreigner has ever won the World Cup for another country.

So why do we think it will be different with Nigeria? Unless, for selfish reason, we ridiculously and shamefully limit our ambition to getting to semi-final of the African Championship in hiring a foreign coach.

Nigeria is going through very challenging times as a country right now. The challenges are almost overwhelming, yet no one is clamouring for us to bring foreign ‘experts’ to fix the country. Why should sport be different? Why are other countries finding even our ‘poorly’ trained local Nigerian professionals good enough to help develop their own countries?

We underestimate our people and their capacities.

Was it not only a few years ago that Samson Siasia was hailed as best coach of the year by FIFA at a certain level?

In a new World Order, patriotism is a key to national survival. There is no room for inferiority complex, or senseless squandering of resources on foreigners no better than Nigerians.

Nigeria must now place her destiny in the hands of qualified and patriotic Nigerians.

The Super Eagles must carry the banner of Nigeria proudly and without any dilution of its spirit to achieve ultimate greatness in the world. The coach of the Super Eagles must wear the country’s ambition like a cloak.

If the price of the elevation of Nigeria, and the emancipation of the Black Race is that we ‘lose’ now to gain experience and eventual success, we must pay that price. That is the route to go.

No more foreign coaches in Nigeria!

Let us sink or swim with Nigerians, even in football!

[Damunk]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

[Enugu II]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

Damunk

Please list those who are sitting around waiting for government appointment? Is Finidi on that list? Who is?

[Agbako]

There is nothing else to add. Odegbami has said it all. Nigeria do the needful. Your children are watching your colonial mentality.

[Cellular]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

Dwight Yorke wants to come together with other black ex-pros to buy a club so that he can hire black coaches.

The black coaches are sitting on their backsides.

What does Dwight Yorke know?

[Cellular]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

This is the elephant in the room...

[Lolly]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

Dwight Yorke wants to come together with other black ex-pros to buy a club so that he can hire black coaches.

The black coaches are sitting on their backsides.

What does Dwight Yorke know?

I am sure they will appoint a black dude with coaching badges.

[Cellular]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

Dwight Yorke wants to come together with other black ex-pros to buy a club so that he can hire black coaches.

The black coaches are sitting on their backsides.

What does Dwight Yorke know?

I am sure they will appoint a black dude with coaching badges.

Why are the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Brendan Rodgers even Prof. Benítez allowed to keep on failing over and over again?

We don't even get the benefit of hiring these professional failures. What we get are journey men hustlers looking to use African nations to pad their resume.

Meanwhile, black coaches don't even get a sniff... and when they get, it is one and done.

[Lolly]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

Dwight Yorke wants to come together with other black ex-pros to buy a club so that he can hire black coaches.

The black coaches are sitting on their backsides.

What does Dwight Yorke know?

I am sure they will appoint a black dude with coaching badges.

Why are the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Brendan Rodgers even Prof. Benítez allowed to keep on failing over and over again?

We don't even get the benefit of hiring these professional failures. What we get are journey men hustlers looking to use African nations to pad their resume.

Meanwhile, black coaches don't even get a sniff... and when they get, it is one and done.

All the guys you listed kept busy and never sat on their bum waiting for the England job. Yes, some have failed but some have won league titles and cups. They all count.

I am for an indigenous coach but I just wish some of our “coaches in waiting” can get busy with clubs or national teams across Africa or anywhere else where the colour of their skin won’t be hinderance.

As it is, I would favour a Finidi above the others. He has his UEFA badges, and he has kept busy, and coming back home to manage a NPL team is a big bonus. I think he deserves it. And he has played at the highest level. Not far behind is Amuneke who has more international managerial experience.

[1naija]

For Cellulite, all that matters is that you have a certificate and are called a coach. Your track record and experience are irrelevant.

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

Dwight Yorke wants to come together with other black ex-pros to buy a club so that he can hire black coaches.

The black coaches are sitting on their backsides.

What does Dwight Yorke know?

I am sure they will appoint a black dude with coaching badges.

Why are the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Brendan Rodgers even Prof. Benítez allowed to keep on failing over and over again?

We don't even get the benefit of hiring these professional failures. What we get are journey men hustlers looking to use African nations to pad their resume.

Meanwhile, black coaches don't even get a sniff... and when they get, it is one and done.

All the guys you listed kept busy and never sat on their bum waiting for the England job. Yes, some have failed but some have won league titles and cups. They all count.

I am for an indigenous coach but I just wish some of our “coaches in waiting” can get busy with clubs or national teams across Africa or anywhere else where the colour of their skin won’t be hinderance.

As it is, I would favour a Finidi above the others. He has his UEFA badges, and he has kept busy, and coming back home to manage a NPL team is a big bonus. I think he deserves it. And he has played at the highest level. Not far behind is Amuneke who has more international managerial experience.

[highbury]

My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami
23 March 9, 2024 5:00 am
My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami

I do not like to bring up the issue of coaches, because we forget easily.


Let us talk about a few foreign coaches since Clemens Westerhof, my friend, the acclaimed best coach in Nigeria’s history, was engaged to coach the national team in 1989.

Who was Clemens in the world of coaching when he was hired? Was he a world -class coach? What club or country of renown did he coach? What trophies of substance did he win?

The truth is that he was a nobody. Nobody knew him. How he was hired will make Jose Peseiro’s case look very good.

Clemens started rather poorly but ended after 5 years on a glorious note. Throughout that period, he enjoyed uncommon privileges, access to power and resources arranged by the interest that brought him into the system.

By 1994, at the end of the USA World Cup, so sour was his relationship with some players, some media, and even leadership of the football association that he abandoned the job and did not even bother to return to Nigeria. Thus ended his era.

Then, it was widely reported that he was not even the brain behind the success of the team on the field of play. A section of the media led public opinion in questioning his technical competence, crediting his success to his trainer/assistant, Jo Bonfrere.

That’s how, supported by some media, a trainer was elevated to national coach of Nigeria, in total betrayal of trust unknown in football at that level.

Jo Bonfrere was a ‘nobody’ as well in getting that job. He had no world-class credentials. Yet, he took a team brimming with exceptionally talented footballers to Atlanta ’96 and returned with an Olympic Gold medal. Like Westerhof before him, the Super Eagles were his launch pad to his coaching success and any credible credentials.

Incidentally, he too soon fell out with the authorities, and the cycle of foreign coaches continued intermittently after that, with occasional punctuations by Nigerian coaches for brief periods, until another foreign coach was hired to take the team to the 1998 World Cup.

Bora Milutinovic was the first ‘world-class’ coach to be hired by Nigeria. He was so ‘good’ that he was the only coach in the world at the time to have taken 4 national teams (none was African) to the World Cup. His tenure as Nigeria’s national team coach may probably be the worst in Nigeria’s history. He did not even return to Nigeria from his disastrous outing at France ’98. That much said for a ‘world-class’ coach.

Armchair critics, however, would have colourful answers to defend the tenures of all these White foreign coaches. Yet, Westerhof ‘failed’ at Algiers ‘90 (he did not win the trophy) before, 4 years later, with a team brimming with talent, he won AFCON.

Yet, they would also describe some of the Nigerian coaches that took over the national team on interim basis for a few weeks or months to AFCON (like Westerhof did in 1990), but ended without winning, as ‘failures’, never giving them a chance again.

Therefore, it is preposterous how a national team that was ranked 5th in the World in 1994, that won AFCON twice since then, could actually hire a foreign coach in 2023 and set a target of a semi-final berth at AFCON for him, when Nigeria should be aiming by now to win the World Cup. That’s Paseiro’s case.

Some things do not add up.

It is about ‘experts’ not understanding the dynamics of the world today and Nigeria’s place in it, and the interconnectivity with every facet of life, including football. The future of Nigeria hinges as much with the country’s economy, politics, etc as with its sports.

Victor Oladokun and I exchanged a few messages this week. I do not have his permission to quote him here, so I will not. But the following in my own response:

“There shall be a new World Order in the aftermath of the several wars going on dangerously around the world now. Africa must be ready, and Nigeria must take the lead in creating a united front for Africa, and negotiating from a position of strength. That’s where our soft-power ‘innocuous’ tools come into play to be deployed.

‘war’ must be fought cleverly, using unorthodox ‘weapons’. We have used conventional means for over 500 years and failed…time to think and strategize differently”.

The weapons I am referring to above are cultural tools – music, dance, film, fashion, and sports, areas that Africa can dominate, earn respect and relevance.

After 5 Centuries, Africa’s physical and mental enslavement and plundering of its mineral, spiritual, institutional, cultural and even human resources must stop. Africa is not ‘designed’ by other civilisations to succeed and thrive to become an advanced culture.

In the ongoing war of the Civilisations, nothing is exempt as a weapon. Indeed, advanced countries thrive only because they keep Third World countries down. Africa must break loose and be free from this stranglehold.

It has been clear for decades that the most populous Black nation on earth, rich and with some of the smartest and most educated people on earth doing great things in and for other countries around the world, should lead the African continent in negotiate Africa’s place in the new Scramble for Africa.

There is a change coming to the world and Africa must be an integral part of that change and an active participant in its own fate. Professor Patrice Lumumba of Kenya describes it as going to that Table of Civilisations not as waiters this time, but as diners, equal partners with other civilisations.

This must be fundamental to the decisions we all take from now onwards in all the things we do and the decisions we take.

That’s why we must shelve and sheath anything that portrays the Nigerian as inferior to any Race in all endeavours, because the Nigerian is not. He is found everywhere, in the arts and sciences, excelling. Coaching in football is not rocket science!

These days, without ‘foreign coaches’, Nigeria has conquered the once-exclusive world of music and dance. Film, fashion and the arts are fast catching up. Sport, the most powerful of them all, is still on the runway, waiting for the right buttons to be pressed in order to take off.

Nigeria must take the lead in Africa to deploy sport (football in particular) as an essential soft-power weapon to contribute its quota to determining the future of Africa. It is a responsibility that those of us in the sport industry must wear like a cloak every day, and remember in all our dealings with the rest of the world, including who we hire to coach one of our most visible and valuable assets to date in the world.

Nigeria’s ambition should match its talent and size.

Through the decades since 1985, we have seen the evidence that Nigeria can become the first African country to win the World Cup. Even the late legend, Pele, and other renowned coaches from other countries have expressed the same sentiment that Nigeria has the talent to win the World Cup before any other African country. But none of them said the country would do so by using foreign coaches. After all, they know that in history, no foreigner has ever won the World Cup for another country.

So why do we think it will be different with Nigeria? Unless, for selfish reason, we ridiculously and shamefully limit our ambition to getting to semi-final of the African Championship in hiring a foreign coach.

Nigeria is going through very challenging times as a country right now. The challenges are almost overwhelming, yet no one is clamouring for us to bring foreign ‘experts’ to fix the country. Why should sport be different? Why are other countries finding even our ‘poorly’ trained local Nigerian professionals good enough to help develop their own countries?

We underestimate our people and their capacities.

Was it not only a few years ago that Samson Siasia was hailed as best coach of the year by FIFA at a certain level?

In a new World Order, patriotism is a key to national survival. There is no room for inferiority complex, or senseless squandering of resources on foreigners no better than Nigerians.

Nigeria must now place her destiny in the hands of qualified and patriotic Nigerians.

The Super Eagles must carry the banner of Nigeria proudly and without any dilution of its spirit to achieve ultimate greatness in the world. The coach of the Super Eagles must wear the country’s ambition like a cloak.

If the price of the elevation of Nigeria, and the emancipation of the Black Race is that we ‘lose’ now to gain experience and eventual success, we must pay that price. That is the route to go.

No more foreign coaches in Nigeria!

Let us sink or swim with Nigerians, even in football!

I am certain some people will have issues with what he said. It's crazy!! I think Nigeria is still acting like her former name- Slave coast. The people and their leaders are unfortunately held captive by that slave mindset.

[Enugu II]

My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami
23 March 9, 2024 5:00 am
My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami

I do not like to bring up the issue of coaches, because we forget easily.


Let us talk about a few foreign coaches since Clemens Westerhof, my friend, the acclaimed best coach in Nigeria’s history, was engaged to coach the national team in 1989.

Who was Clemens in the world of coaching when he was hired? Was he a world -class coach? What club or country of renown did he coach? What trophies of substance did he win?

The truth is that he was a nobody. Nobody knew him. How he was hired will make Jose Peseiro’s case look very good.

Clemens started rather poorly but ended after 5 years on a glorious note. Throughout that period, he enjoyed uncommon privileges, access to power and resources arranged by the interest that brought him into the system.

By 1994, at the end of the USA World Cup, so sour was his relationship with some players, some media, and even leadership of the football association that he abandoned the job and did not even bother to return to Nigeria. Thus ended his era.

Then, it was widely reported that he was not even the brain behind the success of the team on the field of play. A section of the media led public opinion in questioning his technical competence, crediting his success to his trainer/assistant, Jo Bonfrere.

That’s how, supported by some media, a trainer was elevated to national coach of Nigeria, in total betrayal of trust unknown in football at that level.

Jo Bonfrere was a ‘nobody’ as well in getting that job. He had no world-class credentials. Yet, he took a team brimming with exceptionally talented footballers to Atlanta ’96 and returned with an Olympic Gold medal. Like Westerhof before him, the Super Eagles were his launch pad to his coaching success and any credible credentials.

Incidentally, he too soon fell out with the authorities, and the cycle of foreign coaches continued intermittently after that, with occasional punctuations by Nigerian coaches for brief periods, until another foreign coach was hired to take the team to the 1998 World Cup.

Bora Milutinovic was the first ‘world-class’ coach to be hired by Nigeria. He was so ‘good’ that he was the only coach in the world at the time to have taken 4 national teams (none was African) to the World Cup. His tenure as Nigeria’s national team coach may probably be the worst in Nigeria’s history. He did not even return to Nigeria from his disastrous outing at France ’98. That much said for a ‘world-class’ coach.

Armchair critics, however, would have colourful answers to defend the tenures of all these White foreign coaches. Yet, Westerhof ‘failed’ at Algiers ‘90 (he did not win the trophy) before, 4 years later, with a team brimming with talent, he won AFCON.

Yet, they would also describe some of the Nigerian coaches that took over the national team on interim basis for a few weeks or months to AFCON (like Westerhof did in 1990), but ended without winning, as ‘failures’, never giving them a chance again.

Therefore, it is preposterous how a national team that was ranked 5th in the World in 1994, that won AFCON twice since then, could actually hire a foreign coach in 2023 and set a target of a semi-final berth at AFCON for him, when Nigeria should be aiming by now to win the World Cup. That’s Paseiro’s case.

Some things do not add up.

It is about ‘experts’ not understanding the dynamics of the world today and Nigeria’s place in it, and the interconnectivity with every facet of life, including football. The future of Nigeria hinges as much with the country’s economy, politics, etc as with its sports.

Victor Oladokun and I exchanged a few messages this week. I do not have his permission to quote him here, so I will not. But the following in my own response:

“There shall be a new World Order in the aftermath of the several wars going on dangerously around the world now. Africa must be ready, and Nigeria must take the lead in creating a united front for Africa, and negotiating from a position of strength. That’s where our soft-power ‘innocuous’ tools come into play to be deployed.

‘war’ must be fought cleverly, using unorthodox ‘weapons’. We have used conventional means for over 500 years and failed…time to think and strategize differently”.

The weapons I am referring to above are cultural tools – music, dance, film, fashion, and sports, areas that Africa can dominate, earn respect and relevance.

After 5 Centuries, Africa’s physical and mental enslavement and plundering of its mineral, spiritual, institutional, cultural and even human resources must stop. Africa is not ‘designed’ by other civilisations to succeed and thrive to become an advanced culture.

In the ongoing war of the Civilisations, nothing is exempt as a weapon. Indeed, advanced countries thrive only because they keep Third World countries down. Africa must break loose and be free from this stranglehold.

It has been clear for decades that the most populous Black nation on earth, rich and with some of the smartest and most educated people on earth doing great things in and for other countries around the world, should lead the African continent in negotiate Africa’s place in the new Scramble for Africa.

There is a change coming to the world and Africa must be an integral part of that change and an active participant in its own fate. Professor Patrice Lumumba of Kenya describes it as going to that Table of Civilisations not as waiters this time, but as diners, equal partners with other civilisations.

This must be fundamental to the decisions we all take from now onwards in all the things we do and the decisions we take.

That’s why we must shelve and sheath anything that portrays the Nigerian as inferior to any Race in all endeavours, because the Nigerian is not. He is found everywhere, in the arts and sciences, excelling. Coaching in football is not rocket science!

These days, without ‘foreign coaches’, Nigeria has conquered the once-exclusive world of music and dance. Film, fashion and the arts are fast catching up. Sport, the most powerful of them all, is still on the runway, waiting for the right buttons to be pressed in order to take off.

Nigeria must take the lead in Africa to deploy sport (football in particular) as an essential soft-power weapon to contribute its quota to determining the future of Africa. It is a responsibility that those of us in the sport industry must wear like a cloak every day, and remember in all our dealings with the rest of the world, including who we hire to coach one of our most visible and valuable assets to date in the world.

Nigeria’s ambition should match its talent and size.

Through the decades since 1985, we have seen the evidence that Nigeria can become the first African country to win the World Cup. Even the late legend, Pele, and other renowned coaches from other countries have expressed the same sentiment that Nigeria has the talent to win the World Cup before any other African country. But none of them said the country would do so by using foreign coaches. After all, they know that in history, no foreigner has ever won the World Cup for another country.

So why do we think it will be different with Nigeria? Unless, for selfish reason, we ridiculously and shamefully limit our ambition to getting to semi-final of the African Championship in hiring a foreign coach.

Nigeria is going through very challenging times as a country right now. The challenges are almost overwhelming, yet no one is clamouring for us to bring foreign ‘experts’ to fix the country. Why should sport be different? Why are other countries finding even our ‘poorly’ trained local Nigerian professionals good enough to help develop their own countries?

We underestimate our people and their capacities.

Was it not only a few years ago that Samson Siasia was hailed as best coach of the year by FIFA at a certain level?

In a new World Order, patriotism is a key to national survival. There is no room for inferiority complex, or senseless squandering of resources on foreigners no better than Nigerians.

Nigeria must now place her destiny in the hands of qualified and patriotic Nigerians.

The Super Eagles must carry the banner of Nigeria proudly and without any dilution of its spirit to achieve ultimate greatness in the world. The coach of the Super Eagles must wear the country’s ambition like a cloak.

If the price of the elevation of Nigeria, and the emancipation of the Black Race is that we ‘lose’ now to gain experience and eventual success, we must pay that price. That is the route to go.

No more foreign coaches in Nigeria!

Let us sink or swim with Nigerians, even in football!

I am certain some people will have issues with what he said. It's crazy!! I think Nigeria is still acting like her former name- Slave coast. The people and their leaders are unfortunately held captive by that slave mindset.

Highbury

It is a deep-seated mindset and it is resodent even here on CE. The preference would be to hire a European ball boy over a trainer at Kano Pillars.

[TonyTheTigerKiller]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

… and pray, what might that elephant be


Cheers.

[Enugu II]

TTTK

I wonder who are those managing NPFL teams? Are they not Nigerians? Or just maybe those are managed by players. BTW, NPFL is just one league. In essence, I am a bit confused about those waiting for government appointments because hundreds of Nigerians are actively coaching at various levels. Now, let's be clear -- applying and getting to manage at the national team level has its perks because it suddenly elevates the status of the manager. Thus, there is a point in seeking such appointment but that does not mean that even those seeking such appointments are not actively engaged elsewhere e.g. Finidi. In my view, one cannot use the situation of a handful of coaches and then use that to define hundreds of others.

[Bell]

My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami
23 March 9, 2024 5:00 am
My Coach For The Super Eagles! –Odegbami

I do not like to bring up the issue of coaches, because we forget easily.


Let us talk about a few foreign coaches since Clemens Westerhof, my friend, the acclaimed best coach in Nigeria’s history, was engaged to coach the national team in 1989.

Who was Clemens in the world of coaching when he was hired? Was he a world -class coach? What club or country of renown did he coach? What trophies of substance did he win?

The truth is that he was a nobody. Nobody knew him. How he was hired will make Jose Peseiro’s case look very good.

Clemens started rather poorly but ended after 5 years on a glorious note. Throughout that period, he enjoyed uncommon privileges, access to power and resources arranged by the interest that brought him into the system.

By 1994, at the end of the USA World Cup, so sour was his relationship with some players, some media, and even leadership of the football association that he abandoned the job and did not even bother to return to Nigeria. Thus ended his era.

Then, it was widely reported that he was not even the brain behind the success of the team on the field of play. A section of the media led public opinion in questioning his technical competence, crediting his success to his trainer/assistant, Jo Bonfrere.

That’s how, supported by some media, a trainer was elevated to national coach of Nigeria, in total betrayal of trust unknown in football at that level.

Jo Bonfrere was a ‘nobody’ as well in getting that job. He had no world-class credentials. Yet, he took a team brimming with exceptionally talented footballers to Atlanta ’96 and returned with an Olympic Gold medal. Like Westerhof before him, the Super Eagles were his launch pad to his coaching success and any credible credentials.

Incidentally, he too soon fell out with the authorities, and the cycle of foreign coaches continued intermittently after that, with occasional punctuations by Nigerian coaches for brief periods, until another foreign coach was hired to take the team to the 1998 World Cup.

Bora Milutinovic was the first ‘world-class’ coach to be hired by Nigeria. He was so ‘good’ that he was the only coach in the world at the time to have taken 4 national teams (none was African) to the World Cup. His tenure as Nigeria’s national team coach may probably be the worst in Nigeria’s history. He did not even return to Nigeria from his disastrous outing at France ’98. That much said for a ‘world-class’ coach.

Armchair critics, however, would have colourful answers to defend the tenures of all these White foreign coaches. Yet, Westerhof ‘failed’ at Algiers ‘90 (he did not win the trophy) before, 4 years later, with a team brimming with talent, he won AFCON.

Yet, they would also describe some of the Nigerian coaches that took over the national team on interim basis for a few weeks or months to AFCON (like Westerhof did in 1990), but ended without winning, as ‘failures’, never giving them a chance again.

Therefore, it is preposterous how a national team that was ranked 5th in the World in 1994, that won AFCON twice since then, could actually hire a foreign coach in 2023 and set a target of a semi-final berth at AFCON for him, when Nigeria should be aiming by now to win the World Cup. That’s Paseiro’s case.

Some things do not add up.

It is about ‘experts’ not understanding the dynamics of the world today and Nigeria’s place in it, and the interconnectivity with every facet of life, including football. The future of Nigeria hinges as much with the country’s economy, politics, etc as with its sports.

Victor Oladokun and I exchanged a few messages this week. I do not have his permission to quote him here, so I will not. But the following in my own response:

“There shall be a new World Order in the aftermath of the several wars going on dangerously around the world now. Africa must be ready, and Nigeria must take the lead in creating a united front for Africa, and negotiating from a position of strength. That’s where our soft-power ‘innocuous’ tools come into play to be deployed.

‘war’ must be fought cleverly, using unorthodox ‘weapons’. We have used conventional means for over 500 years and failed…time to think and strategize differently”.

The weapons I am referring to above are cultural tools – music, dance, film, fashion, and sports, areas that Africa can dominate, earn respect and relevance.

After 5 Centuries, Africa’s physical and mental enslavement and plundering of its mineral, spiritual, institutional, cultural and even human resources must stop. Africa is not ‘designed’ by other civilisations to succeed and thrive to become an advanced culture.

In the ongoing war of the Civilisations, nothing is exempt as a weapon. Indeed, advanced countries thrive only because they keep Third World countries down. Africa must break loose and be free from this stranglehold.

It has been clear for decades that the most populous Black nation on earth, rich and with some of the smartest and most educated people on earth doing great things in and for other countries around the world, should lead the African continent in negotiate Africa’s place in the new Scramble for Africa.

There is a change coming to the world and Africa must be an integral part of that change and an active participant in its own fate. Professor Patrice Lumumba of Kenya describes it as going to that Table of Civilisations not as waiters this time, but as diners, equal partners with other civilisations.

This must be fundamental to the decisions we all take from now onwards in all the things we do and the decisions we take.

That’s why we must shelve and sheath anything that portrays the Nigerian as inferior to any Race in all endeavours, because the Nigerian is not. He is found everywhere, in the arts and sciences, excelling. Coaching in football is not rocket science!

These days, without ‘foreign coaches’, Nigeria has conquered the once-exclusive world of music and dance. Film, fashion and the arts are fast catching up. Sport, the most powerful of them all, is still on the runway, waiting for the right buttons to be pressed in order to take off.

Nigeria must take the lead in Africa to deploy sport (football in particular) as an essential soft-power weapon to contribute its quota to determining the future of Africa. It is a responsibility that those of us in the sport industry must wear like a cloak every day, and remember in all our dealings with the rest of the world, including who we hire to coach one of our most visible and valuable assets to date in the world.

Nigeria’s ambition should match its talent and size.

Through the decades since 1985, we have seen the evidence that Nigeria can become the first African country to win the World Cup. Even the late legend, Pele, and other renowned coaches from other countries have expressed the same sentiment that Nigeria has the talent to win the World Cup before any other African country. But none of them said the country would do so by using foreign coaches. After all, they know that in history, no foreigner has ever won the World Cup for another country.

So why do we think it will be different with Nigeria? Unless, for selfish reason, we ridiculously and shamefully limit our ambition to getting to semi-final of the African Championship in hiring a foreign coach.

Nigeria is going through very challenging times as a country right now. The challenges are almost overwhelming, yet no one is clamouring for us to bring foreign ‘experts’ to fix the country. Why should sport be different? Why are other countries finding even our ‘poorly’ trained local Nigerian professionals good enough to help develop their own countries?

We underestimate our people and their capacities.

Was it not only a few years ago that Samson Siasia was hailed as best coach of the year by FIFA at a certain level?

In a new World Order, patriotism is a key to national survival. There is no room for inferiority complex, or senseless squandering of resources on foreigners no better than Nigerians.

Nigeria must now place her destiny in the hands of qualified and patriotic Nigerians.

The Super Eagles must carry the banner of Nigeria proudly and without any dilution of its spirit to achieve ultimate greatness in the world. The coach of the Super Eagles must wear the country’s ambition like a cloak.

If the price of the elevation of Nigeria, and the emancipation of the Black Race is that we ‘lose’ now to gain experience and eventual success, we must pay that price. That is the route to go.

No more foreign coaches in Nigeria!

Let us sink or swim with Nigerians, even in football!

ODEGBAMI NOT SAYING ANYTHING NEW


I didn't want to highlight anything because I'd have to color the whole text. He gets it. It goes well beyond winning a footbal match. It's about pride, it's about knowing who you are, where you want to go, continental and racial leadership, getting value for your money, self belief, accepting challenges and so on. Nothing riles me more than seemingly educated Nigerians coming here to further enslave the country instead of accepting the challenge of leading it (and the continent) out of a culture of perpetual foreign dependency. They disguise their lack of confidence as simply a desire for (foreign) excellence without offering a way to ultimate self-reliance.

It would be bad enough if the foreign coaches had an edge over indigenes but this is not even the case. Imagine setting a laughable target of 2023 AFCON SF when Nigeria should be taking its place with the Brazils, Germanys, Frances of the world. Unfortunately, I don't know if those able to do anything hear pleas like this.
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[Bell]

Nigerians did not come to excel in all areas of human endeavor around the world by sitting on their backsides and waiting for government appointments.
Odegbami has obviously refused to address the elephant in the room.

Damunk

Please list those who are sitting around waiting for government appointment? Is Finidi on that list? Who is?

damunk, PLEASE TAKE YOUR ADVICE


In another thread where it is alleged a current player stated that he didn't want a Nigerian coach, you dvised that we listen to him because of his status. Well, I hope you'd do the same with Odegbami who probably has done more for Nigerian soccer than this alleged player, having distinguished himself as a national player and a frequent commentator on public matters.

Going back to that thread, no one knows how widespread or popular that alleged players view is. And even if it is widespread, does Nigeria want players who are here today and gone tommorrow to dictate its national direction? Should the tail wag the dog? As far as I'm concerned, any player who doesn't want to play for a Nigerian coach can take an immediate walk. It's not as though these huys are winning the WC.
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