by Ademola Sawyer
When in January of 2013, “Big Boss”, Stephen O. Keshi led a bunch of relatively unknown local based players blended with a handful of our “best” foreign based professionals to the AFCON in South Africa, a vast majority of Nigerians (excluding myself) praised him to the high heavens. To them, this was indeed the turning point in Nigerian football. After all, no indigenous coach had ever achieved that feat in the history of Nigerian football. Prior to 2013, the highest any indigenous coach had reached was in 1984, a second place finish by Chief Festus Onigbinde. All the others placed a distance 3rd including the “golden bronze” of 2004 by Chairman Christian Chukwu. In 2012, we could not qualify, as our best indigenous coach of that time, Samson Siasia failed at the qualification stage. Step in Stephen Keshi for the inaugural odd year edition, and qualify us he did winning the trophy eventually. We had arrived! Or had we?
I for one never gave that team a chance and I certainly had my reservations as to the appointment of Keshi to handle our national team. Of course, Stephen Keshi had the “pedigree” required for this new assignment after all, he had played pro football at the highest level, was one of the very few African players who had the exceptional privilege of captaining a European team, had coached two African teams, qualified one for the world cup and led one to the nations cup…so invariably, Keshi was suited for the job. So what’s my “beef”?
I had followed Keshi’s coaching career for a while starting from when he got appointed as the Head coach of the U-21 team in 2001, (This was probably the period JJ Okocha referred to as the beginning of the end of Nigerian football). His sole assignment was to qualify Nigeria for the WYC in Argentina and maybe, win the trophy in the process. With a plethora of budding talents available for selection at that time, we failed to move out of the group stages, amassing a single solitary point out of a possible 9. It should be of note that Keshi’s penchant for squabbles with players came to the fore during this period. Many of us do not know, but his inadequate or non existing man management skills (one of his numerous vices) contributed to the decamping of some youth prodigies who later became household names. Obafemi Martins, Christian Obodo, Stephen Makinwa, Razak Omotoyossi, Benjamin Onwuachi and Emmanuel Adebayor. These guys were “dropped” from that team because “they weren’t GOOD ENOUGH”? As a matter of fact, some of these guys went on to dorn the jerseys of adopted nations. It was only by providence and sheer pressure that Nigeria was able to convince “Oba” and “Obodo” to play for the country. After the AYC debacle, Keshi was drafted to the Super Eagles with Amodu and Erico to salvage what was left of our 2002 world cup qualification. This “feat” was achieved by the trio and they went on to lead the eagles to the AFCO in Mali. Unfortunately for them, they were sacked by the NFA management after a player revolt which Keshi cannot claim not to have instigated. That single action by players, coaches and management contributed to the final nail on the coffin of Nigerian football.
Stephen Keshi later resurfaced in 2006 after probably some refresher courses, and qualified the Togolese national team for their first ever world cup, edging out the mighty Cameroon in the process. But then again, dejavu! He was relieved of his position by the Togo FA after a fall out with non other than who…? Yes! Emmanuel Adebayor, the team captain (whom he had dropped years back). Again, Keshi lack of diplomacy and decorum contributed immensely to his sack as he went on a media frenzy (same as he did recently) on how several nations were queuing for his signature. No employer wants their employee to take the spotlight they say. Keshi moved on and soon landed another job with the Mailan national team. He qualified the team for the AFCON 2010 but sadly, he didn’t learn from his previous engagements. A disagreement with star players and management during the competition as the team shipped in a total of 6 goals as against 7 scored led to his disengagement. Note that the team had stars like Kanoute, Diarra, Sissokko, Bagayoko and Keita.
His next job was with Nigeria as he took over from Samson Siasia who could not qualify us for the AFCON 2012. He was charged with rebuilding the team whilst injecting same with hungry local based stars. Nigeria qualified for the AFCON 2013 and the world cup as well and eventually lifted the AFCON trophy. We did so however with a team that lacked direction, tactically deficient and often played with players out of position. Now, one would be forced to say that we defeated Ivory Coast on the way to winning, but remember, the Ivorien team are perennial under achievers who fail to come to party every time they stood a chance of winning. Beating them in the quarter finals though not expected was no surprise. We didn’t fare any better at the mundial and we reached the second round and were eliminated by an average and docile French team. I am of the opinion that the world cup squad was not the best we could gather. Keshi had to be begged and coerced into inviting a certain Osaze Odemwingie, a player he had fallen out with but who went on to become our best player. His tactical ineptitude was there for all to see, his lack of ideas as he often looked clueless for most times during games and his penchant for ascribing faults to his players who “didn’t play to his instructions”.
I say good riddance to him.
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
In qualifying Togo for the 2006 mundial, Keshi’s team did not play Cameroun. Cote d’Ivoire edged out the Indomitable Lions which lost a last second penalty against Egypt in Yaounde.