OBASANJO'S SECRETS REVEALED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GKNoah
This report looks at the playing and professional careers of
the three men who have been given the responsibility
of bringing continental glory to Nigeria.
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WHAT YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW
ABOUT THE SUPER EAGLES COACHING STAFF
Johannes Bonfrere
Shuaibu Amodu
Stephen Keshi
JOHANNES BONFRERE
OCCUPATION: Technical Adviser
BORN: 46/06/15
BIRTHPLACE: - Holland
NICKNAME: "Jo"
NIGERIA DEBUT: 95/10/21, Uzbekistan
PLAYER CAREER: MVV Maastricht
CAREER HISTORY
1984-85 - 1989-90 MVV Maastricht Holland div I
1990 Nigeria [Assistant Coach] Nigeria
1991-1994 Nigeria [Assistant coach]
1995 - 1996 (Coach) Nigeria U-23
1997- 1998 Qatar National Team Coach
1997-98 - Qatar div I
1998-99 Al Wehda United Arab E. div I
1999 Technical Adviser Nigeria
Nigeria's main coach is an unknown in his country, Holland. As a player, he
was never good enough to play for his national team. And as a coach he was not
good enough to coach a top club in his country. But today he is the
controversial boss of the Super Eagles coaching staff. He has been described as
a football mercenary but in spite of his short comings and under achievement as
a player he is arguably the most successful Super Eagles coach having helped
the team win the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal in the USA.
His appointed late last year as the Eagles coach for the second time was laced
with controversy not least his salary estimated at $30,000 a month and a
controversial $300,000 signing on fee.
His critics are of the view that Nigeria does not need so called foreign
experts that are not recognised by their country. Bonfrere's country Holland is
coached by 37 year old Frank Riykaard who is in the same mould as former Eagles
captain Stephen Keshi. The popular view is that Nigeria should discard the
inferiority complex that clouds our judgement when we appoint the nation's
soccer coach.
SHUAIBU AMODU
OCCUPATION: Chief Coach
BORN: 1956
BIRTHPLACE: Edo . Nigeria
NIGERIA DEBUT AS COACH : 94/11/16, England
PLAYER CAREER: Niger Tornadoes
Following a modest playing career with Niger Tonardoes of Minna, abbreviated by
injury, Shuaibu Amodu proceeded to the National Institute of Sports [NIS] in
Lagos where he obtained his coaching certificate. Upon graduation from the NIS,
Amodu joined the coaching staff at Mighty Jets of Jos as an assistant to then
Head Coach Alabi Assien, from where he moved on to BCC Lions of Gboko as an
assistant to then Head Coach James Peters.
Amodu came into his own reckoning in 1989 as the "interim" successor to Coach
Peters who abandoned the team in controversial circumstances barely four weeks
into the season. Amodu's BCC Lions ended up winning the FA Cup that season,
beating defending champions and 1980's glamour team, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, 1-0
in the final. This was the first triumph by a Northern-based team in 36 years
of the competition's then 44-year-old history. The Lions encored this watershed
by winning the African Cup-Winners Cup in 1990 [the first triumph by a Nigerian
side since Shooting Stars' and Rangers International's successive victories in
1976 and 1977, respectively].
In 1991, BCC Lions returned to a second successive final of the African
Cup-Winners Cup, only to be upset in a 4-5 aggregate loss to the Power Dynamos
of Zambia. However, Amodu sensationally left BCC Lions to join the "gold rush"
at then Gov. Abdulmumuni Aminu's El Kanemi of Maiduguri [the then defending FA
Cup champions] for the 1992 soccer season. Amodu's El Kanemi side retained the
FA Cup in 1992. In 1993, Amodu returned to BCC Lions and instantly regained the
FA Cup.
However, following four consecutive 5th place finishes [1989, 1990 and 1991
with BCC, and 1992 with El Kanemi] and a 4th place finish [1993 with BCC] in
the league standings, some segments of the ever-demanding Nigerian soccer
community derisively labelled him as a "mere cup specialist" [obviously
implying that he could not sustain excellence over the course of a full
season]. It appeared that he would be denied the opportunity to retify this
perception when he was appointed the Super Eagles' Chief Coach in late-1994
[following Clemens Westerhof's post United States 1994 abscondment] during the
course of the 1994 soccer season [elongated because of the break for the World
Cup 1994].
Fortunately, however, due to the Eagles' uncluttered schedule, the NFA granted
Amodu the concession of finshing the 1994 season with the Lions. He promptly
grabbed the 1994 League and Cup double [with the FA Cup final coming barely a
few days after Amodu's debut as the Eagles' coach at Wembley against Terry
Venables' England], and finally put the monkey to rest.
Following his dismissal as Eagles' Chief Coach in 1997 by then Sports Minister
Jim Nwobodo's ministerial fiat [for alleged insubordination by attacking the
soccer authorities in press interviews], Amodu, who was still nonetheless
under contract with the NFA, was drafted as head of the technical staff for
Shooting Stars' continental campaign, and he promptly led the side to the final
of the African Champions' Cup, losing barely on penalty kicks to Egypt's
Zamalek. He subsequently thereafter joined South Africa's Orlando Pirates,
before his recall in late-1998 to the Super Eagles.
CAREER HISTORY
1982 -1985 Mighty Jets [Assistant] Nigeria div I
1986 - 1991 BCC Lions [Assistant] Nigeria div I
1992 El Kanemi Warriors Nigeria div I
1993 - 1994 BCC Lions Nigeria div I
1995 Shooting Stars Nigeria div I
1996 Super Eagles Nigeria -
1997 BCC Lions Nigeria div I
1997-98 Orlando Pirates South Africa div I
1998- 1999 Nigeria [Assistant] Nigeria
STEPHEN KESHI
OCCUPATION: Coach
BORN: 61/01/31
BIRTHPLACE: Lagos
NICKNAME: "Big Boss"
Stephen Okechukwu Keshi was the natural successor to Nigeria's long-serving and
hitherto most successful captain, Christian "Chairman" Chukwu. Like Chukwu, he
was a dominating central defender. However, his dominance on the pitch
sometimes was seen to border on arrogance.
Keshi made his entrance into the Nigerian football scene as captain of the
famous high school football team, St. Finbarr's College of Lagos, the same
school which produced the likes of David Bedel, Emilio John, Marcellus
Obinatu, Godwin Odiye, Samson Siasia, Henry Nwosu, Chibuzor Ehilegbu and a host
of other Nigerian internationals of preceding and succeeding eras.
As captain of St. Finbarr's, his successes attracted the attention of the
"Lagos Rangers", ACB, and in 1979, he made his league bow. Playing in defence
for ACB, he attracted attention from the national team selectors, and very soon
he was lacing his boots for former Green Eagles Technical Adviser Tihomir
"Father Tiko" Jelisavic's free scoring Flying Eagles, whose quest to qualify
for the U-19 World Cup finals of 1981 was aborted by Cameroon's Lionceux at the
last hurdle.
Keshi put that disappointment behind him, and immediately began knocking on the
Green Eagles door with sterling display after defensive display. National team
coach Otto Gloria rewarded Keshi's form with inclusion in the squad to defend
the Nations Cup trophy they'd so handily won at home in 1980.
Nigeria's record during the Nations Cup 1982 in Libya was perhaps the worst
since the country's emergence in the 1970's as a genuine power in the African
game. Not only were the Green Eagles beaten 3-0 by Zambia, its perpetual bogey
team, Keshi scored an own goal in a torrid baptism against Algeria as the Green
Eagles were unceremoniously dispatched home at the end of the first round.
The curse of the Nations Cup defending champion had struck the Green Eagles:
historically, the defending champion suffered first round humiliation and
exited summarily. This elimination signalled the end of Otto Gloria's
relationship with Nigerian football. In his place, came the erstwhile Chief
Coach of the Oyo State Sports Council, Festus Adegboye Onigbinde, a relative
unknown who was not given much of a chance to succeed, let alone survive.
Proving how wily he was, Onigbinde set out to build an altogether new team. Out
went the Odegbamis, Adokiyes, Okalas, Ogedegbes, Boatengs and Osigwes. In came
Peter Rufai, Paul Okoku, Chibuzor Ehilegbu, Rashidi Yekini, Yisa Sofoluwe,
Kingsley Paul, Sunday Eboigbe and a host of other fresh, relatively young,
untested and unknown players. And this squad, the intelligent Onigbinde
astutely wrapped around the defensive rock called Stephen Keshi. Onigbinde made
Keshi captain of Nigeria.
The day had arrived when Nigerian football would show that it could succeed on
defensive foundations. At this stage of his career, Keshi was already the
captain of Willy Bazuaye's terror team, NNB of Benin. In celebration of his
ascendancy, Keshi led NNB to annex the West African Football Union [WAFU] Cup
in 1983, defeating the Ghanaian defending champions, Hasaacas of
Sekondi-Takoradi, who were gunning for their 3rd victory in succession.
Subsequently, he would underline his versatility by playing in central midfield
for NNB, a position he occupied with a rod of iron, particularly during the
1984 WAFU Cup final against Stade Malien of Mali in Bamako, when he also scored
from a viciously struck free kick which hugged the ground like a Tomahawk
cruise missile, went by the edge of the wall and completely defeated the Stade
goalkeeper's attempted blockade.
But for Nigeria, he was always a central defender, and it was in that position
that he captained Onigbinde's fledgling Eagles team [whom domestic pundits had
not given a chance] to an agriculturally-achieved 2nd place finish to Roger
Milla's Cameroon during the Nations Cup 1984 in Ivory Coast. Onigbinde's
inexplicable replacement with the erstwhile Flying Eagles martinet and
ex-international forward, Christopher Udemezue marked the turning point of
Keshi's career. Udemezue was given to long camping schedules, which did not sit
well with players who were family men, particularly Keshi. In the result, 5
players -- Keshi himself, Humphrey Edobor, Sunday Eboigbe and Henry Nwosu, all
of NNB, and the Shooting Stars winger Clement Temile -- were banned from
football for 6 months for reporting late to one of Udemezue's camps.
Edobor would later be excused. However, you cannot keep a good man down, and it
was not 2 months into his ban before Keshi was in Ivory Coast, plying his trade
with Stella of Abidjan, before moving on to the bigger Africa Sports. His spell
there led to a transfer to Belgium's Lokeren, from where he moved on to THE
CLUB of Belgian football, Anderlecht. He would captain Anderlecht to
Championships and cups.
Bury the hatchet with the NFA. Earn a recall to the Green Eagles, and gain back
his captain's armband. Feature, at the zenith of his powers, in the Nations Cup
1988 in Morocco, where the Green Eagles, coached by the German Manfred Hoener,
would end 2nd again to Cameroon by the odd goal, an Emmanuel Kunde penalty
after Roger Milla had taken advantage of Sunday Eboigbe's robust penalty area
tackle and the seeming cupidity of the referee, who earlier disallowed a goal
Henry Nwosu headed in with all 5 feet 6 inches of himself.
He would again be banned, alongside a coterie of Europe-based professionals, in
the early, inauspicuous stages of the Dutchman Clemens Westerhof's entry into
Nigerian football's scene, leading to a near-disaster in the Nations Cup 1990
in Algeria.
Subsequently however, Keshi would become Clemens Westerhof's trusted
lieutenant, his captain, his agent on the pitch, implementing and causing to be
implemented, Westerhof's plans and policies for each and every game. Even as
his career at Anderlecht was winding down, and he had moved on to Strasbourg,
but had passed his zenith, he was always the captain and leader of Nigeria, and
it seemed fitting that Augustine Eguavoen, who captained the Eagles for the
duration of the Nations Cup 1994 in Tunisia bar the semi-finals, deferred to
him, the singular honor of leading the victorious squad up the steps, and
receiving the Champions trophy at the end of a pulsating final against former
bogey team Zambia.
Keshi enjoyed the privilege which many great Nigerian captains before him --
stoppers and sweepers like Sam Opone, Victor Oduah and Christian Chukwu --
never did: gracing the pitch during a World Cup finals. He appeared, in what
turned out to be his last game in Nigeria's colors and wearing that captain's
armband which had become part of his identity, and in his accustomed sweeper
role for the 2-0 defeat of group whipping boys Greece as Nigeria qualified for
the second round at the top of its United States 1994 World Cup group.
After United States 94, Stephen Keshi played for a variety of clubs across Asia
and in the United States before, like the proverbial old soldier, he faded
away. Prior to 1999, many sound judges had argued that, if Nigerians' dreams of
an indigene running the national team were to become reality in the fullness of
time, we had to look to Stephen Keshi's generation of players, and within that
generation, the person most likely, indeed most qualified, to make that happen
was Keshi.
Being on the Dutchman Johannes Bonfrere's coaching squad during the Atlanta
Olympics 1996, Keshi had demonstrated that he possessed the requisite acumen.
However, at the top of football administration, the consideration of petty
personal issues delayed any possibility of that dream becoming reality.
Johannes Bonfrere's reported return to the Nigerian national team as Technical
Adviser has however opened the door to a well-deserved reward for Stephen
Keshi. It is not unimaginable that someday in the near future, another Swedish
journalist will exclaim of a Keshi-coached Eagles, as happened when the
Keshi-captained Eagles whitewashed Algeria 4-1 at home en route United States
1994 "Nigeria is the Brazil of Africa...they will rule African football for 10
years. Nigerian players are too good!"
Stephen Keshi is a born winner. That is his driving force. And this bodes ill
for future Eagles foes.
CAREER STATS [PLAYER]
1979 ACB Lagos Nigeria div I
1980 -1984
1984-85 Stade d'Abidjan Ivory Coast div I - -
1985-86 Africa Sports Ivory Coast div I - -
1986-87 Lokeren Belgium div I - -
1987-91 Anderlecht Belgium div 1
1991-92 Strasbourg France div II - -
1992-93 Strasbourg France div I - 3
1993-94 Molenbeek Belgium div I 4 0
1995 CCV Hydras United States div IV - -
1996 Sacramento Scorpions United States div III - -
1997 Perlis Malaysia div I - 3
1999 Nigeria [Assistant coach ] Nigeria
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