Sunday 9 February 2014

Westerhof Vs Keshi: Who is Nigeria’s greatest coach?

 Keshi and Westerhof

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.
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“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
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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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