Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh was born on the 14th day of September 1974 in Abavo, Delta State, Nigeria.
He was born to his Catholic parents Mr and Mrs Oliseh. His father was an accountant, while his mother is a retired businesswoman.
Oliseh started kicking the ball from the moment he could walk in the village of Abavo, Delta State. He grew up with his siblings (6 boys and 1 girl) at Lawanson, Surulele, Lagos State. Below is a photo of Sunday with his elder brother.
Sunday Oliseh had his primary Education at the Bright Starr Nursery and Primary School (Ojota). For his secondary school, he went to Ajao Estate High school (Anthony Village) and the Methodist Boys High school, all in Lagos State, Nigeria.
These Schools offered him the opportunity to passionately play competitive soccer during sports periods. Due to the natural constraints at the time, Oliseh used every second he had during breaks between classes to play football.
Back home, he competed for everything. As Oliseh puts it; “Right from the time I was a kid, there was competition for everything. There was competition for food, competition for the love of my parents, competition for sitting down on the sofa,—if you don’t sit down early, you will watch VILLAGE HEADMASTER on the floor.
I carried this competition to school.”
There was no television station running at noon, therefore Oliseh would have to play football with his friends to make sure he returns home before his father gets back from work.
His father often spanks him if sees him playing football. Mr Oliseh Snr forbade his son from playing football due to the belief that he had no money, connections and the belief that he knows nobody making a good living out of football.
Oliseh’s football was different while playing with his friends because he applied a lot of logic to it which his friends could not do. The difference between him and his friends was his ability to apply ‘Jogo Bonito’ which denote providing great entertainment with the purest footballing moves. This technique has its origin from Pele and later adopted by Neymar.
Oliseh continued playing football for fun, little did he know that football that would take his family away from poverty. It so happened that, at a point in his life at school (combining school and playing for his local club), Oliseh was paid his first salary by his local club.
Quickly, he took the money home to give his father who not only got surprised but called the rest of his siblings saying;…”Your brother is being paid more than I was paid as an accountant”. This was when Oliseh Snr began to have faith in his son.
In the year 1990, while at Julius Berger Fc and still at school, Oliseh received an invitation from Mr Claude Bissot, (may his blessed soul rest in peace) A Belgian agent, to Belgium for trials.
The year was 1990, on the 1st of July 1990, on board a Swissair flight to Brussels via Zürich, Oliseh went and all he had was $50, an Adidas sports bag, football shoes, few belongings and his most priced article, “The Holy Bible”.
Getting to Belgium, Oliseh realized the first training session was prepared for him. He was surprised the training ended quickly and the club’s director called the white man who brought him saying…“From the explanation you gave of this lad, we thought he was good but didn’t know he was very good. We have agreed to sign him”.
To the surprise of this agent, Oliseh was signed into RFC Liege’s first team on the spot. This was how Oliseh landed himself permanently in Europe.
Oliseh got the moral assistance of Stephen Keshi (playing at Anderlecht at that time) who helped him settle down in Belgium.
After the day Oliseh made his League debut, his coach called and said to him, “I won’t be able to play you more often because you don’t speak the Belgium language”.
Upon hearing that, Oliseh felt sad, saying in his mind “Having known I spoke a language [Ika Lanuage] which belongs to the minority in Nigeria, Now, here I am, being among the minority again”.
Oliseh quickly crossed the road and went on to buy a language book. In the end, he got to know how to speak French, German, Italian and Dutch. He saw himself playing at 8 clubs, including Ajax, Juventus and Dortmund. The rest, as they say, is now history.
One thing remembered about Sunday Oliseh is his thunderbolt goal in the group stage match between Nigeria and Spain in the 1998 World Cup that led Nigeria to victory. The shot was described as explosive since it was fired from 25 yards straight into the net, to the astonishment of the Spanish goalkeeper.
Interestingly, it was his performance on that day that caught the eye of Italian scouts in the stands.
As stated earlier, Oliseh comes from a lower-middle-class family background. His father was an accountant and it was his dream to follow his father’s footsteps. It was Football which just tagged along the way.
His younger brothers, Azubuike and Egutu, are also professional footballers. His elder brother, Churchill Oliseh is also heavily involved in football. Churchill (photo below) is the owner of FC Ebeidei
Sunday Oliseh retired, his family still had hopes on him for financial support. In a bid not to get broke, Oliseh told himself, “There is only one way to keep it going;…continue the education.”.
Oliseh went to North England to continue his education as regards obtaining his UEFA Professional Coaches License which cost him a lot of monies.
While that was in progress, he started another journey by becoming a sports consultant for German Television, CNN and working for FIFA as part of the technical study group.
Oliseh never went bankrupt after retirement. Unlike most of his friends, Sunday’s case was exceptional. Thanks to his wife, his family developed good spending habits.
Most importantly, starting a coaching career helped him to meet the outsized demands of his family and friends.
Oliseh has managed to grow a successful career as a football manager by furthering his education in all things football. Taking a three-year course in coaching and a Diploma in Business Management helped him.
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