Sunday Oliseh, coach of Nigeria.BackpagePix.

Nigeria legend Oliseh reveals why he made coaching return with German club SV Straelen

Nigeria legend Sunday Oliseh has explained why he took up the coaching role at German club SV Straelen.

The 47-year-old returned to the coaching scene on Wednesday after he agreed to pen a one-year deal and handle the North Rhine-Westphalia-based side, who feature in the fourth-tier Regionalliga West league.

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“I’m excited at the job and I feel good about it,” Oliseh said as quoted by Punch. “It’s a good challenge for me, it’s just over an hour’s drive from home and I’m hopeful of a good start with the team.

“I am looking forward to my first game and the baptism of fire will be against a very strong team [St Pauli] in the DFB competition.”

On June 22, Straelen, through club president Hermann Tecklenburg, confirmed they had reached an agreement with the former Super Eagle midfielder to take up the coaching role.

“Yes, Sunday [Oliseh] will be our new coach,” Tecklenburg said. “A good 14 days ago we had delicious asparagus at the Straelener Hof. That was a good conversation.

“In the last 24 hours, we were also able to discuss an employment contract until June 30, 2023.”

Oliseh’s last managerial post was with Fortuna Sittard of the Netherlands, whom he joined on December 27, 2016, but he was fired on February 14, 2018.

Oliseh, who played for top European clubs including Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, and Juventus, started his coaching career in Belgium with youth teams in the Belgian third division.

However, in 2015-16, he was named the coach of the Super Eagles by the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and he went ahead to qualify the team for the Chan tournament in Rwanda, and the group phase of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

He is mostly remembered for scoring the winning goal in the group stage match against Spain in the 1998 World Cup, as Nigeria prevailed 3-2. In total, Oliseh played 63 international matches and scored three goals for Nigeria.

He played at the World Cups of 1994 and 1998 and participated in the Olympic gold medal-winning team of 1996.

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