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FIFA celebrates one of Nigeria’s greatest World Cup heroes

The world football governing body has taken time out to celebrate one of Nigeria’s former stars as he adds another year

FIFA has congratulated former Super Eagles and Ajax star Sunday Oliseh on his special day. The world football governing body took to their social media account to celebrate Oliseh as he turns 47 on Tuesday.

A post on the organisation’s Twitter page read: It’s time to wish @SundayOOliseh a very Happy Birthday.

Oliseh was one of Nigeria’s most distinguished players. The 47-year-old made his debut for the Super Eagles in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Ethiopia in 1993.

A year later, he played a key role in Nigeria’s Afcon triumph in Tunisia. Oliseh was also part of the Nigerian team that qualified for their first World Cup in 1994, reaching the round of 16.

The former Borussia Dortmund continued to enjoy success on the international stage as he was part of the Dream Team that won gold in the football event of the Atlanta 96 Olympics.

However, Oliseh’s most iconic moment for the Super Eagles came at the France 98 World Cup, where he scored that stunning winner in the thrilling 3-2 win over Spain.

At club level, he started his European sojourn with RC Liège before playing for Reggiana, FC Cologne, Ajax, Juventus, VFL Bochum and Genk, where he retired.

Oliseh moved into management after retiring. He had a brief troublesome spell as the Super Eagles coach before taking up the head coach role at Fortuna Sittard.

He almost led the team to the Dutch top-flight but left before he could achieve the feat after falling out with the club’s board.

This post was last modified on September 15, 2021 10:24 am

Joba Ogunwale

Oluwajoba Ogunwale has many years of experience as a sports content writer. The most recent of these was at Opera News, after which he took up the role of Editor-in-Chief at Soccernet.

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  • Tayo James 6 hours ago
    Oliseh can not be 47 years of age please. We are childhood friends.
    This is how you denigrate one of our foremost heroes for all he did to our football. Your are an ingrate.

  • Tayo dont repeat this or anything close to this statement you made on Oliseh, so even your childhood friend this how you treat your friend on what gain, is bad especially in even social network.

  • We have collectively murdered truth in this country . Oliseh and many others before and after him are beneficiaries of football age falsification( reduction) and we all seem to be pretending that it never happened, from all the comments so far.! Must we perpetuate these lies by covering them with new ones?

    • I wonder what our people gain from faking age and supporting lies!
      I watched Oliseh played at Atlanta '96 when I was in junior secondary school. Now I'm over 40 and Oliseh is 47? It can never be true.
      Let's tell him a happy birthday as I've done, and forget about when he was born or how many years he is.
      To those guys who call Tayo whatever names you did, apologize to him. Oliseh might snub you and hug/shake hands with him if all of you happen to meet at one place now.
      Be good.

  • @EE from 1996 till now is 25yrs meaning Oliseh can be 22yrs prior to Olympic in 1996 so what are you talking about if you went to school as an old man so be it you people should stop talking nonsense.

    Happy birthday to Sunday Oliseh.

  • So interesting read.....what I got out of this is we are gradually losing civility in our public space......i

  • IF SUNDAY OLISEH WERE AN ENGLISH OR BRAZILIAN FOOTBALLER, TAYO & HIS LIKE WOULD BE CELEBRATING THAT FANTASTIC GOAL HE SCORED IN THAT MATCH AGAINST SPAIN AS FIFA IS DOING TODAY.
    "SAINTS ARE NEVER RECOGNISED AT HOME" ! !! !!!
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLISEH

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Joba Ogunwale

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