Nigerian Football
Former Super Eagles midfielder Seyi Olofinjana becomes top Swiss Club’s Technical Director
Former Super Eagles star and Ex-Wolves and midfielder, Seyi Olofinjana, has been named as technical director at Switzerland’s most successful club Grasshopper Zurich.
Sports Village Square recalls that in the days that led to the France ‘98 World Cup, Grasshoper Zurich beat the Super Eagles 4-0. But the club has since fallen low.
According to BBC, Olofinjana is aiming to help “steer the club in the right direction”.
The 40 year old will oversee the football department at the newly-promoted Super League outfit and immediately find the right candidate to fill the ‘position of the head coach’ .
The former Stoke City, Hull City and Cardiff City player was snapped up from English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he was most recently loan-manager and had previously worked in various roles.
“This an important role and I look forward to working together with the amazing people at Grasshopper to hopefully steer this massive club in the right direction,” Olofinjana told BBC Sport Africa, after beating off stiff competition from other top applicants.
“A club as decorated and influential as Grasshopper deserves stability and we need to find the right ways of restoring its lost football glory.”
Olofinjana, who holds two master’s degrees as a sports director and project manager, has inherited a club keen to bounce back from the humiliating lows of 2019 when it suffered relegation from the Swiss top flight for the first time in 68 years.
He becomes the latest African to hold the technical director position in Europe after compatriot Michael Emenalo held similar roles at English side Chelsea and French club Monaco.
After two years in the Swiss Challenge League (second tier), the Hoppers sealed promotion last week and the Nigerian insists they are back where they truly belong.
“The history of the club and incredible fanbase clearly reflects a side that deserves better,” he added.
“It is our collective job to set this team in the right direction and among the elite clubs competing for success.”
Olofinjana started his career at Crown FC of Ogbomoso in his native Nigeria, before a stint in the country’s topflight with Kwara United led to a summer 2004 switch to Wolves via Norwegian club Brann Bergen.
He spent four years at Wolves before moving to Stoke City in July 2008 and after a season he joined rivals Hull City for £3m in August 2019.
Stints at Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday in England followed before ending his European career where it all began in Norway this time with IK Start.
Olofinjana made over 50 appearances for Nigeria and represented the Super Eagles in three Africa Cup of Nations in 2004, 2008 and when they finished third in 2010.
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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