Sunday Oliseh: They don't have respect — Super Eagles legend slams current crop after Osimhen's Finidi rant

Super Eagles legend Sunday Oliseh accused the current generation of Nigerian players of lacking respect for their predecessors.

The aftershock of Victor Osimhen’s flagrant rant on social media continues as former Super Eagles midfielder Sunday Oliseh blames a lack of respect for the seeming disconnect between his generation and the current crop of Nigeria internationals. 

Oliseh, 49, was an integral member of the Super Eagles ‘Class of 94’, earning the name from their exceptional showing at the 1994 World Cup in the USA, as was Finidi George. 

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The former Juventus midfielder believes that the players representing Nigeria now, and even the generation from the 2010s, do not revere their predecessors, citing that as the cause of the disconnect between the legends and emerging stars. 

What Oliseh said 

Days after Osimhen went ballistic on social media, Oliseh sat down with renowned Nigerian journalist Matthew Edafe (Elegbete) on his Elegbete TV for a tell-all interview, in which he addressed the problems facing the Super Eagles currently. 

Asked about the cause of the constant clashes between the more recent generations of Super Eagles players and the older ones, Oliseh attributed it to a lack of respect. 

“It boils down to respect,” Oliseh said. “The current generations, the ones who see themselves as stars, have little respect for those who came before them. Especially those who came before them that are bigger than them.” 

He explained that members of his generation (the 94 set) deferred respect to their predecessors. He cited an example with an integral member of the team that won the 1980 AFCON—Nigeria’s first—Segun Odegbami, revealing that he once had a disagreement with the ‘Mathematical’ after the former striker criticised him in an article; however, according to him, he maintained respect for the older colleague and resolved the issue privately. 

“Not every generation is like that,” Oliseh continued. “Nobody from my generation ever calls the 1980 generation by name. Like you see Mr. Segun Odegbami, we don’t call him Segun or Odegbami; we call him Big Sheg.

“You see captain Christian Chukwu of the 1980s; we don’t call him Chukwu; we call him the Chairman because he was the chairman of the defence back then. The same with Mr Adokie Amesimaka; we don’t call him Adokie Amesimaka; we call him the name of the legal system (Chief Justice). It’s a sign of respect.

“That doesn’t mean that that generation did not fault us Mr Odegbami has written some articles, even against my person, that I felt were so bad and so badly informed, wrong and hurtful. 

“I didn’t go out there and start shouting Segun Odegbami, Segun Odegbami, no. One time I called him and I told him ‘Big Shegs nawao, why you go talk this kind thing.’” “And to my greatest surprise, he said, “Sunny [Oliseh], I dey sorry, I been no dey aware. Till today I still call Big Shegs and we discuss private things together… That respect stopped after our generation.”

Oliseh went on to berate the credentials of the more recent Super Eagles generations, emphasising their lack of success.

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