Former Super Eagles’ striker, Peter Osaze Odemwingie has opened up with shocking details of the stormy relationships he had with two ex-stars and top-rated coaches of the Nigerian national team, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi and Samson Yebowei Siasia, megasportsarena.com reports.
The former Pepsi Football Academy of Kaduna, AS Racine of Lagos, Bendel Insurance of Benn City, La Louverre of Belgium, Lille Metropole of France, Lokomotiv Moscow of Russia, West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City and Bristol City of England, Cardiff City of Wales and Maduro United of Singapore all-action attacker admitted that issues with both cons affected his career with the national team to a certain extent.
Although her went on to disclose that he has since put all differences he had with ‘The Big Boss’ and ‘Sia1’ behind him, the mulatto star, who is now 39 years old, recalled that he fell out with Siasia over leadership ideas during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, while his issues with Keshi started during the Africa Cup of Nations 2013 qualifiers, and he ended up being axed from the squad that went on to win gold n South Africa.
The son of a Nigerian father and Russian mother, who are both medical doctors, made his debut for the Eagles in a friendly against Kenya in May 2002 and went on to feature in 63 games, which included appearances at two editions of the World Cup and four in the Nations Cup, but regrets not being part of the winning squad in 2013, despite clenching Olympics silver in 2008.
However, he opined that his spat with Siasia was blown out of proportion by the media and stressed that his time with the Eagles brought for him some of his greatest achievements n the round leather game, from which he will forever cherish the fond memories.
He also admitted that he should have called late Keshi or paid him a visit in order to resolve the rift between them before AFCON 2013, as he ended up being dropped from the squad that won Nigeria’s third continental title and Osaze, who scored a total of 10 goals for the Eagles the last of which came at Brazil 2014 World Cup, admitted that ill feelings should not be held for long.
As fate would have it, the birth of his first son, Theo, coincided with his recall to the Eagles, after he made peace with ‘The Big Boss,’ and Osaze was happy that he eventually resolved the same issue after the AFCON and was part of the 23-man squad that participated in Brazil 2014, where he helped Nigeria qualify for the round of 16 with a well-taken goal against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Osaze recalled: “I think I should have called the coach and not be stubborn, maybe I would have a gold medal too. I dreamt about the team winning the trophy before the tournament kicked off. But you know when you are young and you believe you are right with your decision; you just want to stick to them. Well, it’s past now but it is what I would have handled differently.
“During the Olympic Games in Beijing, there were some rumours among the players because I did not play the qualifiers, that some dodgy things were going on, part of which he is being accused of at the moment. I did not know the validity of it but there were talks of match-fixing. For us the players we played out our hearts and deservedly got to the final which everyone saw.
“After then I was asked by a Nigerian journalist if Siasia was the right man for the Super Eagles job. I paused in my response because I felt in my head that he wasn’t ready. The Olympic team was a mess and you can ask (Sanni) Keita because there were issues throughout the tournament and I think that caused our problem because I could not back his ambition.”
