Siasia exposes the horrific condition under which Nigerian coaches work and says Mikel is stubborn

As the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) gears up to appoint a new head coach for the Super Eagles, former player and manager Samson Siasia exposed the horrible conditions under which Nigerian coaches work.

Siasia, who took the helm in 2016 after Sunday Oliseh’s abrupt departure, spoke out about the NFF’s apparent bias against indigenous coaches in a podcast with ex-international Emmanuel Babayaro and journalist Matthew Edafe.

Siasia’s primary concern is the significant pay gap between foreign and Nigerian coaches.

“They pay the white people more money,” Siasia lamented. “They’re paying the white person $50,000 for a month, then they give you N1 million and the people you are working with, they want to still pinch from money. They don’t send us anywhere (to coaching courses) and yet they expect us to be better.”

Siasia went on to detail the challenging circumstances surrounding his last stint as the Super Eagles coach.

“Oliseh just ran away,” Siasia recounted, referring to Oliseh’s sudden resignation. “He’s been like that since…well, like Ben Johnson! Here I was, coaching the Olympic team, and Oliseh just up and quit. We don’t even know why.”

Siasia initially hesitated to take over the national team. “They said, ‘Coach, you take over.’ I said, ‘Take over what?’ They said the Super Eagles. I said no, I don’t want to. That’s not my team. I can’t get control of that team in two weeks, and in two weeks we’re playing against Egypt!”

However, with veteran coach Shuaibu Amodu citing health reasons, Siasia stepped up for the national team. “I said, ‘You? What are you? You’re a coach. Go and coach the team.” He said, “No, I have a heart problem. I said, ”You trying to give me one too?” He said, ‘No, we don’t have anyone else but you.”

Acknowledging the immense challenge, Siasia stated, “I said okay, since we don’t have anyone else, let me do a rescue mission. We tried, but at the last minute, Egypt scored.”

Siasia highlighted the lack of long-term support for Nigerian coaches. “They never give Nigerians a chance,” he said. “You lose one match and they fire you. That’s the truth.”

Siasia led the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, winning a bronze medal.

The team is remembered for arriving in Brazil just hours before their first game at the Olympics and starting their campaign with a 5-4 victory over Japan.

Speaking of their ordeal while preparing for the Olympics, Siasia said the team went through hell.

“I am special in the area of taking care of the players compared to other coaches because I spend my money to make sure that the boys are okay,” he said.

 “I buy them toothpastes, and toothbrushes whenever we travel out and even give them $100 each from my pocket. Do you think they (players) are playing for Nigeria? No, they are playing for me.

“Your players are looking up to you and you can’t let them down, I made the boys who they are today, I put them in a platform where people can see them, if not who is going to buy a player that is playing in the Nigerian league.”

He added, “The things I have done to get the players to where they are is out of the ordinary because I care about the players.

“Before travelling to Brazil, I had to use my connections in the US to get the team to travel; Nigerians abroad are so nice and patriotic because many of them would come out to ask what happened. When we went to training, before we came back they would have thrown our things out of the hotel. To eat was also a problem, and Nigerian boys who had restaurants would cook and bring food for us to eat.

“Imagine the (then) minister saying he didn’t know where we were and claimed that I took the boys to my house.”

On the flight hitches before the squad eventually flew to Rio from Atlanta, Siasia added, “As regards the plane issue, we were supposed to arrive a week before the Olympics but there was no money, and a Nigerian, Yemi Idowu, chartered a plane for us. Up till now, the NFF hasn’t paid him back the $250,000 and now the guy is angry with me. I called him and apologised to him, explaining that we should have paid him the money but the money had disappeared.”

Siasia has disclosed his reservations about former Chelsea midfielder, John Mikel Obi

Siasia expressed his inability to tolerate Mikel Obi’s attitude during their time together.

Siasia and Mikel Obi’s relationship dates back to 2005 when Siasia led the Flying Eagles to the finals of both the 2005 Under-20 World Cup and the U-20 African Youth Championship. Although they won the African Youth Championship, they lost the world final to Argentina 2–1.

Siasia described Mikel as ‘stubborn’, stating, “Mikel Obi is a little bit out of my league, stubborn and I cannot tolerate people like that,”

However, the former Super Eagles striker also acknowledged Mikel’s leadership qualities, particularly during the 2016 Rio Olympics, where the team secured a bronze medal.

“The only good thing he did was that Olympics he came out and played because I had warned him severally, and he played as a captain and that’s why we got to where we did,” he noted.