A self-made man, Oliseh defied his fathers advice against football and started his career at the very bottom of the social ladder- at school breaks for fun, and, sooner than later, found himself combining professional football at Julius Berger FC and school in the year 1989.
He found his way to the national team via Belgian club RFC Liege which he joined via a Belgian agent in 1990, straight from school. His style of play maintained an ambiguous relationship with the national team, a relationship so odd that it was hard to understand if it was Oliseh who needed Nigeria to make his career shine, or if it was Nigeria who leant on the player to preserve her popularity.
He wielded unparalleled influence during his prime, commanding attention and even shaping match outcomes with his style of play. Naturally endowed with stupendous energy, Oliseh’s frame was an endless store of pressing energy, and his physical voltage was cautiously and articulately unleashed on opponents, a fact which literally translates into perhaps one of the fewest bookings and the fewest injuries associated with a ‘very physical’ defensive midfielder in the history of the game.
His unmatched technical flare would see him give opponents terrifying shoulder barges, suddenly and devastatingly extinguishing the fire of onslaughts and stifling opposition moves, all without getting booked.
Today’s coaches would have found Oliseh’s tackles a bit too risky, but that was precisely the players’ essence of influence, the cornerstone on which all the other attributes of the player lay. When he went for goal, Oliseh did not read anyone’s script – he wrote his own, with venomous volleys that left opponents ducking for safety and goalkeepers diving in vain.
This long list of features and capabilities made him a terrific value, the lethal battle axe for managers whose game plan was heavily dependent on the midfield.
For over a decade, he was not only the irreplaceable cog in the team, but also the one who had breathed into Nigerian football the traditional pattern of long sessions of build up play in deep midfield followed by occasional, sudden and dangerous breakaways by the forwards, as any cornered player upfront would pass back to him to restart foiled moves. Oliseh would receive the ball and redirect it to less pressured zones of the Nigerian build up, be it sideways or forwards, eventually leading to ecstasy and trance.
If Oliseh was considered an agitator, it wasn’t only because he delivered frank and upfront messages that put to the test the conscience of the listeners, but he could also get physical if not confrontational when provoked.
This is evident in his altercations with teammates, opponents, seniors and juniors alike. Just to mention but a few, Oliseh headbutted and broke teammate Vahid Hashemian’s nose bridge in a dressing room squabble at Germany’s FC Bochum, and his foul mouth as Nigeria’s head Coach is Veteran keeper Victor Enyeama’s reason for early retirement from international football. On the pitch, Oliseh never needed a second invitation to squabbles and off the ball duels, even though some fights never needed his involvement.
It never occurred to him that the best way of stopping a problem is to stop participating in the problem, and to date, his conduct after Italy’s Gianfranco Zola saw red for an Augustine Eguavoen who had dived to feign injury in USA 1994 round of sixteen match is still seen as ‘gleeful consolation’ and hypocritical attention given to fake Nigerian injury.
Many are convinced that he was at fault leading to Italy’s equalizer in the USA 1994 World Cup, a game that Nigeria had already ‘won’, only for Oliseh to try dribbling Baggio instead of clearing the ball from danger, paving way for Italy’s victory in extra time.
However, Oliseh scored for Nigeria in the 3-0 walloping of Kenya en route to France 1998, and added the icing on the cake by scoring perhaps the greatest World Cup goal for Africa in Nigeria’s 3-2 humiliation of Spain in France 1998.
A sincere devotee to Nigeria, Oliseh was inconsolable when Nigeria lost(as seen in the 2000 AFCON final loss to Cameroon), where he left the pitch in tears and headed direct to the dressing room.
Loses and blame games punctuated the last games of a man whose career had been bigger than life.
The words “..some players give everything for their clubs abroad and very little for their countries.” by Nigeria’s head coach in 2002 after losing to Senegal in the AFCON semi’s was but a veiled dig at particularly him and maybe, Wilson Oruma who’d lost a penalty.
His exit coincided with the beginning of the end of Nigeria’s reign as Kings of Africa Soon, emergent African giants like Cameroon and Senegal grabbed the mantle of Africa’s flag bearers on global stages like the World Cup, Olympics and the Confederations Cup. Nigerian players had taken a backseat in the African best player of the year rankings, definitely wounding Nigeria, and the football administration would seek to find his replacement, until, maybe, John Obi Mikel who came close, but whose international light was but dimmed by other areas that were technically lacking to make Nigeria the giant she was.
Until 2002 when he quit, Oliseh was Nigeria’s undisputed linkman from 1993 when he debuted, playing 54 games and scoring 2 goals in total. Representing Nigeria abroad, he played for top European clubs including Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus. He retired from professional football at Belgian top side RC Genk in 2006, a record 16 years in Europe, bagging 18 club goals in total.