In the annals of Nigerian football, Dutchman Clemens Westerhof is regarded as the country’s best coach ever.
The European coach played a major role in the positive turnaround of Nigerian football in the early 1990s.
Having arrived Nigeria in 1989, he
spearheaded a football revolution that landed the Super Eagles at the
World Cup — for the first time ever — in five years.
Westerhof is credited with turning the
fortunes of Nigerian football around, first into a perennial powerhouse
in African football and also assembling what has been described as
Nigeria’s Golden Generation of players.
Within this period, he won the Africa Cup
of Nations gold, silver and bronze medals as well. But he quit his
post as the Eagles coach after the national team crashed out of the 1994
World Cup second round after losing to Italy’s Azzuris.
Under him, the likes of Austin Okocha,
Sunday Oliseh, Rashidi Yekini, Emmanuel Amuneke, Daniel Amokachi, Finidi
George, Uche Okechukwu, Austin Eguavoen and others, all went on to
enjoy successful careers with various high-profile European clubs.
Ever since, Westerhof has been widely
acclaimed as Nigeria’s best coach, until Stephen Keshi was named coach
of the Eagles in 2011.
Keshi was Westerhof’s captain and close
confidant during the Dutchman’s reign. But he seemed to have learnt the
ropes very fast from his ‘mentor’ and has achieved relative success
within a very short time as the Eagles head coach.
While it took Westerhof five years and
three attempts before he could win a Nations Cup trophy, it took Keshi
just one attempt in two years to win it in 2013 and emerge as the second
man to win the title as a player and coach after Egypt’s Mahmoud
El-Gohary.
After Westerhof was signed in 1989 by the
Nigerian Football Association, he failed to qualify the Eagles for the
1990 World Cup.
He began a rebuilding process
immediately, bringing in mostly home-based and unheralded Nigerian
players into the squad.
That was how the likes of Okechukwu, Amokachi,
Emma Okocha, Herbert Anijekwu, Abdul Sule and several other
up-and-coming players then got their opportunities to play for the
Eagles.
It paid off as he qualified the team for the World Cup in 1994 in his second attempt, also winning the AFCON trophy same year.
Again, Keshi equaled that feat in far
lesser time leading the team to a fifth World Cup appearance in just two
years as coach of the team.
KESHI’S VOTES
Ademola Adeshina, Keshi’s teammate in the
national team, who also played under Westerhof, says the Nigerian has
surpassed the feat of the Dutch coach.
Former Nigeria defender, Taribo West,
picks Keshi ahead of Westerhof but says both coaches will be better
assessed after the World Cup in Brazil.
Another ex-international, Garba Lawal, gave his vote to Keshi.
He said, “Normally, I will say Keshi is
better because Westerhof came in 1989 and he had more time to groom his
team.
“Before Keshi came in, people were crying, because of the poor football we were playing but things are different now.”
Joe Erico and Keshi were assistant
coaches to Shaibu Amodu when the Eagles qualified for the 2002 World Cup
and won a bronze medal at that year’s AFCON in Mali.
He says the difference is clear between both coaches, arguing that Keshi has overtaken the Dutchman as a coach.
WESTERHOF IS IT
But Chairman, Sports Writers Association
of Nigeria (Lagos Chapter), Fred Edoreh, insists that the Dutchman
remains the country’s number one coach.
“I still think that Westerhof is the best
coach we’ve had in this country.
We’ve been playing association
football since the 1960s but we only qualified for the World Cup for the
first time in 1994 and won the Nations Cup same year,” Edoreh said.
Edoreh however feels Westerhof’s dominance may be a thing of the past very soon going by the success recorded by Keshi.
“But I still think that Westerhof brought
the light into our football; he remains the greatest.
Ex-junior international, Festu Odini, is in support of Edoreh.
.
“It’s going to be tough picking among
both coaches but I will pick Westerhof because of his experience.
However, Keshi is still young and has enough time to surpass Westerhof’s
achievements,” the Japan ‘93 U-17 World Cup winner said
.
ON THE FENCE
Etim Esin, a former Eagles midfielder would rather wait till after the World Cup before he can make his judgement.
“Let’s see how far Keshi goes at the
World Cup before we start judging. I would say Keshi is the best
indigenous coach to have managed the Eagles while Westerhof is the best
foreign coach we’ve ever had.
Head, Technical Committee, Nigerian Football Federation, Chris Green, also declined to assess any of the coaches.
He said, “It will be unethical to compare
both coaches with my position but both of them have been fantastic and
have done well for the country’s football.”
Ace sports broadcaster, Aisha Falode,
said, “Asking about the best among both coaches would be unfair. When
Westerhof was here, we had a league that was thriving; there was so much
talent in the league for a coach to pull from.
“But Keshi has been a groundbreaking
person from his playing days. Remember he is the Big Boss.
culled from Punch
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