In less than a year after he was not deemed fit to become the Head Coach of the Nigeria U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, former Nigeria international, Michael Nsien, is now coaching both the U-16 and U-19 National Teams of the United States of America. Speaking to a cross sections of journalists on a popular WhatsApp platform, NSM Reloaded, monitored by CHARLES OGUNDIYA, Nsien, who was a member of the 2003 Nigerian U-23 National Team that ultimately failed to qualify for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, said it is frustrating that Africans don’t value their own. Excerpts…
Just a year after failing to secure the job of coaching the Nigeria National U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, the US Football Association named you their U-17/19 Head Coach, can you tell us the story?
I wouldn’t call it a failure that I didn’t get the job in Nigeria. I spoke to the consultant offline and he said by far I had the best interview but the process can be difficult in Nigeria and we know that. I don’t consider it a failure, I consider it as an experience I had to go through. In regards to the US, I’ve been coaching at the youth level for 10 years and five years at the professional level. It’s not easy to be an African-American, coaching in the United States. One thing that the US is starting to realize is that there is a lot of benefit to diversity in their program. A lot of players coming to the United States are black players so I think they are starting to realize that faces that look like them can inspire them and help them throughout the course of their career. It’s been a blessing and an honor to get the opportunity in the US and I’m looking forward to the other opportunities that continue to come my way. It’s all about timing.
When we are talking about the age-grade teams, the US is nowhere near Nigeria in terms of achievement, would you say that has anything to do with numerous talents from Nigeria?
aftI don’t think you can compare the history and the achievements of the youth portion of football in the world in Nigeria and the US. There is no question that Nigeria has a better history but we are to speak of today and the future maybe we can speak of something different. In the past, a lot of the achievements were based on just the talent which Nigeria will continue to have forever but at some point, the development process becomes even more important so I think that Nigerian talents are natural but in the US some of it are trained. The US is now starting to have a lot of natural talents and they get exposed to a better environment at a young age than their Nigerian counterparts. The day is coming when the US will start to be considered one of the top global development countries in the sport. I think that is a matter of time. Nigeria has to be careful that it doesn’t go the opposite way. There are a lot of boats, and one is going in one direction while the other is going in the other direction. I just had some experience when we played the Nigerian team in Japan, and you can see the individual talent of the Nigerian players for sure but the structure and organisation of the team are different.
After what transpired between you and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as per the U-17 job, would you one day be tempted to apply for the Super Eagles job?
The way I look at it I’m in a good place. My promotion in the United States Federation went from the U-16 to the U-19 in less than a year and I was just an assistant with the first team; the senior men’s club and I helped to get more opportunities for them. The US move the younger players to the main team and the resources at its disposal. I am really happy with my own process and my growth as a coach. I think Nigeria would know that I’m a worthy candidate from my experience and they would reach out to me. I don’t think currently that I would put my name in any application process where they didn’t reach out to me first just based on my achievements. Would I stand a chance? I would because for them to have reached out to me, that means they recognise my level as a coach and how they think I can help the Super Eagles.
There will likely be a search for a new coach for the Super Eagles after the 2024 AFCON, do you think Nigeria coaches both at home and in the diaspora are ready for the job?
I think as blacks, and Africans we need to ask ourselves some questions. There was a point in the United States where I was one of the three black coaches that was coaching at a professional level. There are only two at the moment. If you go to Africa, we see the value in outsiders more than ourselves and it’s a frustrating process for a coach. It’s so hard in a foreign land and then in your own country, you are still not valued. I think we need to ask ourselves why. If you just remove the name and look at the CV and the work they have done and select from that process, it should be a benefit if someone understands the culture and identity of a country. Anyone with Nigerian heritage from Nigeria specifically or the diaspora should be of benefit to the country. The question is, did they have the football skills and the education to actually help the team? That needs to be there but it shouldn’t be taken for granted that we have African coaches, Nigerian coaches that have pedigree and they also understand the culture and identity of the actual country.
So if it is vacant, would you apply for the job and continue from where Peseiro stopped?
When it comes to a job of this calibre, this high profile, I don’t believe that people who apply for it actually get the job. If Nigeria is a high-profile footballplaying country it understands the coach that it wants to go after and then they start a process together to streamline it so that they can come out with a certain number of candidates that suit their profile and not the opposite. You don’t open the door for a thousand candidates and you go through a list and ask questions about what you want for that potential job. My hope would be that enough people in the world of football Nigeria included would realise my potential and if they see me as a fit, they would call me and we would ultimately have that discussion. If things continue to go the way they are going for me in the United States and my profile as a coach continues to grow and develop, I think I’m a suitable candidate for a lot of high-profile jobs. And being a Nigerian American, Nigeria will always be the top for me in my heart.
Nigeria remains the most successful team in Africa when we talk of women’s football, but it has been difficult for the team to translate this to success at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, what do you think has been the reason and how do we bridge that gap?
I think it was apparent that the difference between the Super Falcons in their World Cup experience and the AWCON experience was eye-opening. They looked like two different teams. I would say the difference between continental football and real global, international football is the difference in identity, not really knowing your opponent and being able to scout and cut out together a game plan in four or five days. It looked like they were on the right track in the World Cup this year but the resources to continue to work with the group throughout the procedure at any given time and to be able to get into an organised camp and have objectives and game plan and then once you get into a competition to be able to have a scouting resource, to have good resources strategies, good training methodology and put in a successful game plan that has to be turn out very quickly. I think it all depends on the resources and the people that you are working with.
Most of our national team coaches rarely invite players from the local league to the national team, if at a point you become either Super Eagles coach, or any other national team, are you going to continue in the same trend?
The responsibility for a coach to pick players from the local league, I don’t think that falls on the coach. The federation and its local and domestic leagues should work together and have a relationship so that they know how to produce players that belong to the national team. That is not the coach’s responsibility. His job is to select the best players that can compete. I would say that NPFL and NFF need to have clarity and work together in a way that they can be organised and the players that are coming through the local league have an actual opportunity and are good enough to have that opportunity if players were to come through the local team to the national level it would boost the credibility of the league. There are a lot of positives if that were to happen but that’s up to the league and the federation to organise the league in a way that it gives exposure to the players and helps produce players good enough to be on the national team.
It was a great outing by the Super Falcons at the last World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, with some American born Nigerians contributing to the success of the team, would you say is the rating of Nigerian women footballers now in the US?
I think the World Cup did put a nice bright light on the Nigerian female players. I think when you see the problems going into that World Cup and you see how they worked together to have a successful outing, I think that speaks to the credibility of the coach as well as the players ability to handle that. On this side of it in the US we know there are talented Nigeria players in terms of mental strength and the ability to endure difficult moments. I think a lot of credibility is given to Nigerian players to say not only are they technically, tactically and physically gifted but mentally they are able to endure and come out on the other side. I think it was remarkable.
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