Former Super Eagles captain and head coach Sunday Oliseh has alleged that he was told not to invite three senior players to the national team when he took over as head coach.
In an interview with Crafty Entertainment Blog, the 52-year-old revealed that he was warned against inviting Mikel Obi, Vincent Enyeama and Emmanuel Emenike because they were tagged as troublemakers for the team and the Federation.
“When I became head coach of the Super Eagles, the NFF told me not to invite Mikel Obi, Vincent Enyeama and Emmanuel Emenike because they were chaotic to the federation.”
The former Ajax player alleged in the interview that he had travelled from Belgium to London with his assistant to hold an official meeting with Mikel Obi and Victor Moses as the Super Eagles head coach. He said he ensured the meeting location was in London and easily accessible to the players. Unfortunately, only Moses showed up, but Mikel never did and did not respond to his invitation.
Oliseh further revealed that what Victor Moses said about the Federation was similar to what they had also experienced, asserting that this made him have the utmost respect for the former Chelsea winger.
Although there had been a rift between the three players and Oliseh, in 2024, during one of his Obi Mikel Podcast episodes, Mikel revealed that shortly after Oliseh was appointed head coach, taking over from Stephen Keshi, Oliseh confronted three of the players: himself, Vincent Enyeama and Elderson Echiejile. He asserted that Sunday Oliseh had said he was told they had power in the team and that he would not tolerate it:
“I remember the first day he came into the camp. Then we reported to the camp for international duties, then he came straight at me and Vincent Enyeama, the goalkeeper, who also was very powerful back then.
“He came straight at us and Elderson Echiejile, and he said a few things. He said he heard there was a lot of player power with us.
“Then Enyeama was like, ‘What’s wrong with you? Where are you getting all of these from? We are a nice group, and you just come in, and the first thing is to attack us?’
“He was like, ‘I heard about you guys.’ And then Enyeama stood up and told him he couldn’t say that because we had been here for so many years. They started arguing, and literally, they were going to have a fight.
“He took Enyeama out of the team, and he came at us saying he was going to take us out of the team. He said he was going to take us out of the team; he said he was going to make sure we didn’t play anymore.”
“Enyeama could not take it, and despite my pleas, he left the camp angrily and never came back.”
Obi further said Oliseh was tactically poor and the worst coach he had ever played under, despite his short stint with the team.
