Nigerian star Amokachi gets coaching chance in Finland

Former Everton striker, Olympic gold medal winner and ex-Nigeria coach Daniel Amokachi is to coach Second Division team JS Hercules, in the northern city of Oulu, in 2016. Amokachi is also planning to make a 52-episode mobile TV series for an African telecoms firm, in which he’ll explore the challenges faced by an African coach 200km south of the Arctic circle.
"I’ve coached at two World Cups, three African Cups of Nations, and the Confederations Cup," said Amokachi, who took his coaching licence exams in the Netherlands before becoming an assistant coach for Nigeria from 2008 to 2014 and caretaker manager in 2014 and 2015.
"Even so, getting to coach a second division team in Europe is probably the best coaching opportunity I could get. There aren’t many of us Africans coaching in Finland. So this is a great opportunity."

Chilly reception

Amokachi arrived in Oulu on Wednesday evening after a long journey from the Nigerian capital Abuja, experiencing a drop in temperatures of around 50 degrees in the process.
"It’s no problem," said the 43-year-old. "It’s a new experience in my life. It’s as if I was a 16-year-old footballer, who came to Europe for the first time. I’ll do everything I can to make the team’s supporters smile."
That statement indicates something of the gulf between little Hercules and their new coach. The club was founded by a group of students in 1998, and has bumped around the Finnish lower divisions since then. It’s grown a little, with two men’s teams and a women’s team, but it’s still a very down-to-earth, youthful and community-based organisation.

Amateur outfit

The first team played in the third division last year, the fourth tier of Finnish football, and has never before charged admission for a match. That will change this season, when the club moves to a new municipal ground with space for 2,000 spectators.
None of their players receive a salary from the club, and the squad includes doctors, students and environmental engineers. Once they’ve finished their day jobs, Amokachi will have to get used to training his new charges indoors until March or April, when snow cover in north Ostrobothnia usually melts.
The Nigerian, whose nickname is ‘The Bull’, will be busy off the pitch as well. He’s agreed to produce an ‘Amokachi Adventures’ TV series in conjunction with Oulu’s TopSpot talent scouting company and an African mobile telecoms provider.

TV star

That series will be out in the autumn, and the entertainment business is nothing new for Amokachi.
"Since I stopped playing I’ve done a lot of TV work, documentaries, live broadcasts and reality TV," said Amokachi. "The TV series will explore how an African manages in a strange country with weird weather. The most important reason for coming here is my coaching though."
On arrival in Finland Amokachi was asked about an infamous incident in 1995, when he was playing for Everton. During an FA Cup game against Tottenham he substituted himself in against his furious manager’s wishes. He scored two goals in that game, helping Everton to a 4-1 victory.
"There weren’t any other options. If I hadn’t (scored) it would’ve been my last game for Everton!" Amokachi told Ilta-Sanomat.
If a Hercules player tries the same thing this season, Amokachi said he’d hope for a similar result.
"But of course we’d have a discussion after the game," Amokachi told IS. "We’d talk about the player’s professionalism. My door is always open to my players."