Former Nigeria Coach Oliseh Makes U-turn About Potential Return As Super Eagles Manager

Former Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh said he will consider a return to help Nigerian football if he is approached for a second stint.

The former Ajax and Borussia Dortmund midfielder played for Nigeria between 1993 and 2002, before he was appointed the national team coach in July 2015.

Oliseh’s reign did not last long as he tendered his resignation to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) seven months later due to a breach of contract.

The 46-year-old, who is yet to find a new challenge since he left his managerial role at Fortuna Sittard in 2018, said he is ready for a Nigeria return under one condition.

“My country is my country, nobody can take it from me. You can make any comment you want to make, but I am first [a] Nigerian before anything else,” Oliseh told Channels TV.

“So, if my country really needs me to help out and they ask me to come and do it, I will do it. But I will not do it if I am giving the best of my knowledge for my country to work and somebody is just taking it ‘yes or no’ and then eventually we all fail. I resigned from the Super Eagles because I had decided that when I was sick, I was going to stop because I did not get any help from the federation.”

Meanwhile, Oliseh had previously stated that he does not want to coach the Super Eagles again after the struggles he faced in his first stint.

“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,” Oliseh once said.

“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.

“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 who won trophies for Nigeria.

“I’ve never heard Gernot Rohr complain about wages. Keshi, while he was coaching, was always complaining, when I was coaching 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.”

Culled from Goal.com