Vincent Enyeama quit the Super Eagles in Belgium;
calling time on his international career, but not without
some controversy. He alleged the head coach, Sunday
Oliseh insulted his late mother, had security throw him
out of the camp and stripped him. In an exclusive
interview with www.footballlive.ng Sunday Oliseh
debunked the claims insisting the 33-year-old defamed
his character.
The full excerpt of the interview:
I am deeply saddened, troubled and profoundly hurt by
the assassination of my person as Vincent Enyeama has
done over the past two days on social media about me
insulting his mother, these allegations are unheard of.
When I was appointed the chief coach of the Super
Eagles of Nigeria, I drove to Lille to see Vincent, took him
to lunch and discussed how we wanted to move forward
with him as my captain. I shared my philosophy with him
and he made a statement I didn’t like, he said he was
going to retire in a year or two and I told him I wouldn’t
hear of it as he was the captain of the team because we
were thinking of taking the team to the 2017 African Cup
of Nation (AFCON) and 2018 World Cup; but we can’t
build a team with you as captain if you are retiring in
2017.
Two weeks ago, before the camp started he told us about
his mother’s burial but I couldn’t go and there was an
arrangement with the President who assured me he’d be
there on behalf of the NFF and team. But he started
talking about retirement so at that moment I felt we
needed someone else as captain; it had nothing to do
with hurting anybody.
I don’t know Vincent personally, I’ve only been named
coach and in fact we’ve seen only once. He’s served
Nigeria very well and as Captain, I was also captain and I
know how difficult that job is.
We started camp on Monday, to my greatest surprise,
Mikel Obi and Ighalo camped in on Sunday night. We had
invited 4 goalkeepers and he told us he had to bury his
mother. So, Obviously he couldn’t report to camp early
until Tuesday, just about the time we were rounding up;
he drove into training ground.
Prior to his coming in, we had the Nigeria ambassador to
Belgium come in to talk with the team because our
delegation had not been given visas to come in, six
players were stuck in Nigeria over the hitch; two of them
were goalies. And somebody had to act in the absence of
the Captain which Musa had been doing well prior to the
Tanzania and Niger games. And I remember, when the
Ambassador wrapped up I told Musa; as the captain, to
introduce the team as a way to appreciate the support.
But the boys did not train well that afternoon, the ball
playing was good but our objectiveness on the ball was
not up to my satisfaction so later at dinner I called the
team and told them I was not happy and demanded
more from them. Only for Vincent to stand up insisting
on saying somethings but I told him to see me about it
later. He refused and as side talks persisted, I called him
to order, he started raising his voice, I told him we
couldn’t have two coaches in the team and that he had to
retire to his room. His colleagues got up and escorted
him out of the hall. Two of his colleagues came in later
to see me; the Captain Ahmed Musa and Mikel Obi,
pleaded on his behalf and we left it there. Only for issues
to start popping up on social media alleging we insulted
him and his late mother.
Most people are not aware of this but I’ll tell you now
that when we went to play in Tanzania, I personally
asked for the team to wear the black band in honour of
his mother and for us to observe a minute’s silence , we
asked and we went through the channel of Dayo Enebi,
but they said we should have made the demand earlier,
does this sound like a man who wants to humiliate his
captain?
What happened after wards, was alarming. We had only
two goalkeepers, 15 players and we were playing a
friendly game so we had to call in players who did not
need visas to come into Belgium as quick as possible to
make up numbers. We now had to call in Alampasu
because we had only two goalkeepers; we were already
making a case with Alloy to get ready if anything
happened. We called Efe Ambrose and Madu in, working
like we were a fire brigade.
I did not even have time to reply social media chats
because we had to work.
However, on the match day, Vincent did not come for
lunch, I was confused because I thought we’d put all of
the previous night’s issues behind us. I called him and
asked why he wasn’t in for lunch and he said he was
returning to his club. He said because I invited Alampasu
he was leaving. Alloy Agu is my witness, God is my
witness.
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