Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh is a Nigerian football manager and former player. In his active playing career he played as a midfielder.
Playing career
A physical yet technically gifted defensive midfielder, Oliseh played for world-famous clubs such as AFC Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus F.C.. Oliseh played 63 international matches and scored three goals forNigeria, and played at the Football World Cups of 1994 and 1998. Oliseh also participated in the Olympic gold medal winning team of 1996. Sunday Oliseh was voted Africa's third best footballer in 1998 by CAF. 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. A throw-in deep in the Spanish half was headed clear by Fernando Hierro – Oliseh ran and fired an explosive shot from 25 yards and took Spanish goalkeeperAndoni Zubizarreta completely by surprise. Despite captaining Nigeria during the 2002 African Cup of Nations, Oliseh was omitted from his country's World Cup squad later that year for disciplinary reasons. After missing out on World Cup selection, Oliseh retired from international football in June 2002 for having led the team as they demanded unpaid allowances and dues owed to be paid. In March 2004, Oliseh was sacked by Borussia Dortmund after head butting teammate Vahid Hashemian while on loan at VfL Bochum allegedly over racial remarks. In January 2006, at the age of 31, Oliseh retired from professional football after playing a half season for Belgian top club K.R.C. Genk.
Coaching career
Oliseh started his coaching career in Belgium with youth teams in the Belgian 3rd Division Verviers, notably the Under 19 team. Graduated to the first team as chief coach season 2008–09 Verviers. During the 2014–15 season, he was appointed as the Chief Coach and Club Manager of RCS VISE Belgium 3rd Division. In 2015–16, was appointed by the Nigerian Football Federation the National Team Chief Coach of Nigeria where he made an impressive statistic of; 14 Games 19 Goals scored, 6 conceded. He qualified Nigeria to the CHAN tournament in Rwanda, qualified Nigeria to the Group phase of the 2018 world cup Qualifiers and on his first game as Chief Coach of Nigeria in an AFCON qualifier managed a draw in Tanzania. He resigned as Nigeria's national coach at about 2:28am on 26 February 2016 exactly a month to the team's encounter with the Pharaohs of Egypt in the AFCON qualifiers. He was barely 8 months into his stay as manager due to contract violations, lack of support, unpaid wages and benefits to his players, Asst. Coaches and himself. On 27 December 2016, it was announced that Oliseh had been appointed as the new manager of Fortuna Sittard. He was fired on 14 February 2018, and claimed the reason he was fired was because he refused to participate in illegal activities at the club.
Style of play
Although Oliseh essentially played as a holding midfielder throughout his career, Jonathan Wilson noted in a 2013 article for The Guardian that he was an early example of a more creative interpreter of this role, who focussed more on ball retention and passing rather than solely looking to win back possession.
