Remembering Sunday Oliseh
Sunday Ogorchukwu Oliseh (born 14 September 1974 in Abavo, Delta State) is a former Nigerian footballer who in his active playing career played as a midfielder. He is the current coach of the Nigerian national football team. Physical, technical defensive midfielder, Oliseh played for well known clubs such as AFC Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus F.C..
Oliseh played 54 international matches and scored two goals for Nigeria, and played at the Football World Cups of 1994 and 1998. Oliseh also participated in the Olympic gold medal winning team of 1996.
He is mostly remembered for scoring the winning goal in the group stage match against Spain in the 1998 World Cup, as Nigeria prevailed 3–2. A throw-in deep in the Spanish half was headed clear by a defender – Oliseh ran and fired an explosive shot from 25 yards and took Spanish goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta completely by surprise. Despite captaining Nigeria during the 2002 African Cup of Nations, Oliseh was omitted from his country's World Cup squad later that year for disciplinary reasons. After missing out on World Cup selection, Oliseh retired from international football in June 2002.
In March 2004, Oliseh was sacked by Borussia Dortmund after punching team-mate Vahid Hashemian while on loan at VfL Bochum.
In January 2006, at the age of 31, Oliseh retired from professional football after playing a half season for Belgian top club K.R.C. Genk.
Ahead of the unveiling exercise by the Nigeria Football Federation, newly appointed Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh arrived in Abuja, Nigeria the evening of Tuesday 14 July 2015 to take up the job of coaching Nigeria's national team, the Super Eagles.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) decided to motivate him afterwards by giving him a brand new Nissan Altima 2.5 SL 2015. He was responsible for the retirement of the most capped player, Vincent Enyeama in October 2015.
By Dusan Radonjic