NFF
Who Will Buy Player In Nigerian League?
Former Super Eagles head coach, Samson Siasia, has berated players plying their trade in the Nigerian league while trying to explain that he gave some Nigerian players international recognition.
Samson Siasia has been coaching Nigeria’s national teams in international competitions since 2005, when he led the under-20 team, which included John Obi Mikel and Taiye Taiwo, to win silver at the 2005 Under-20 World Cup.
He also led the under-23 teams to the 2008 Olympics, where they won silver, and the 2016 Olympics, where they won bronze.
During those tournaments, Samson Siasia claimed that he virtually took over the basic needs of the players, including buying them toothbrushes and giving them 100 dollars each for their upkeep.
“I am special in the area of taking care of the players compared to other coaches because I spend my money to make sure that the boys are okay,” Samson Siasia said while speaking on a podcast alongside ex-international Emmanuel Babayaro and journalist Matthew Edafe.
“I buy them toothpastes, and toothbrushes whenever we travel out and even give them $100 each from my pocket. Do you think they (players) are playing for Nigeria? No, they are playing for me.
“Your players are looking up to you and you can’t let them down, I made the boys who they are today, I put them in a platform where people can see them, if not who is going to buy a player that is playing in the Nigerian league.”
He added, “The things I have done to get the players to where they are is out of the ordinary because I care about the players.
“Before travelling to Brazil, I had to use my connections in the US to get the team to travel; Nigerians abroad are so nice and patriotic because many of them would come out to ask what happened. When we went to training, before we came back they would have thrown our things out of the hotel. To eat was also a problem, and Nigerian boys who had restaurants would cook and bring food for us to eat.
“Imagine the (then) minister saying he didn’t know where we were and claimed that I took the boys to my house.”
One of the biggest scandals involving the under-23 Olympic team was ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics, when the Nigerian team arrived late for the tournament.
They had flight hitches while trying to fly from Atlanta to Rio, and they had no funds to book another flight. While they were on the verge of losing out on the tournament, a private individual allegedly chartered a plane for them that flew them to Brazil.
Afterwards, Samson Siasia and his boys won bronze at the Olympics.
The coach said, “As regards the plane issue, we were supposed to arrive a week before the Olympics but there was no money and a Nigerian, Yemi Idowu, chartered a plane for us. Up till now, the NFF hasn’t paid him back the $250,000 and now the guy is angry with me. I called him and apologised to him, explaining that we should have paid him the money but the money had disappeared.”
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