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The second coming of the Big Boss After playing in Nigeria's 1994 World Cup group game against Greece - his last in a 13 year international career - Stephen Okechukwu Keshi decided it was time to hang his boots and make a fresh start with his family in the Californian city of San Francisco. When I visited him in December 1998, Keshi felt that his immense contribution to the growth of Nigerian football was not appreciated. He vowed not to have anything more to do with the Super Eagles. My humble plea for him to return to Nigeria - and make use of the wealth of experience he had acquired in European football - were to no avail. Or so I thought. But like a duck drawn to water, the pull of football, his first love, was irresistible. The ex-Lokeren, Anderlecht and Strasbourg libero, who sipped from the coaching well of George Leeskens, Aad De Mos and Gilbert Gress - managers with an impressive pedigree in European club football - was subsequently hired as the Assistant Nigerian Manager. "I remember telling you I wouldn't have anything to do with the national team anymore but I was put under a lot of pressure to come back home and contribute my quota to Nigerian football", "Big Boss", as he's fondly known, told me months later. Charting the waters of coaching has been a turbulent and eventful experience. Hired on the request of Dutchman, Jo Bonfrere, who was the Nigerian manager and had grown to like and respect Keshi (while he captained the team), the romance between the two went sour after the 2000 African Nations Cup. Bonfrere accused Keshi of insubordination and sabotage. Keshi, not known for being a shrinking violet, fired several salvos in return. "Big Boss" lost the battle and was "redeployed" to manage the Under-20 team. But Stephen didn't lose the war. Nigeria's loss to Sierra Leone in a World Cup qualifier in Freetown saw Bonfrere's subsequent dismissal by the Nigerian FA and a return to the Super Eagles coaching crew. In conjunction with Manager, Shaibu Amodu and goalkeeping coach, Joe Erico, the Nigerian trio pulled a Korea/Japan World Cup ticket out of the jaws of defeat. They have made history as the first set of Nigerian coaches (and the only all-African crew in the current World Cup qualifying series) to pilot a bumpy World Cup flight to a safe landing. "I think we have been able to prove a lot of people wrong. Nigerian coaches are capable of achieving a lot, provided they are given the tools with which to work", Keshi argues. In the view of Segun Odegbami, one of Nigeria's and Africa's all time football greats, Keshi is the future of Nigerian coaching. "Players like Keshi should be used as (head) coaches now, when the knowledge they've acquired from Europe is still very fresh in their minds and can be of immense benefit to the African game, even if they have no formal coaching licences but are just experiences" Odegbami says. When Keshi was hired, the FA promised that he'll be the eventual manager of the Super Eagles. But that was a "gentleman's agreement" (as if such exists in Nigerian football!). Keshi's ascent to the Super Eagles managerial chair would be a bold move, as well as the right one. But will the Nigerian FA have the initiative to make an inspired decision? Your guess is as good as mine, folks...
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