Samson Siasia (born 14 August 1967) is a former Nigeria football striker and the former head coach of the Nigerian National
football team (The Super Eagles) from 2010 to October 2011. He was reappointed in 2016.
At club level, Siasia most notably played for French team FC
Nantes where he became league champion in 1994/95. He also
played for Australian club Perth
Glory with fellow Nigerian Peter
Anosike, as well as in Belgium, Portugal, Saudi
Arabia and Israel.He played 51 international matches for Nigeria, in which he scored thirteen goals, and was part of the team that participated in the 1994 FIFA World Cup and won the 1994 African Nations Cup. He was also a member of the Nigerian team that won bronze at 1992 African Nations Cup in Senegal. He participated in the National Team over a period of 11 years and is recognized in Nigeria as the third leading scorer for the National Team.
In 2005, Samson Siasia coached the under 20 team (Flying Eagles), taking them to the finals of both the 2005 Under-20 World Cup and the U-20 African Youth Championship. He won the
African Youth Championship and advanced all the way to the world final before
losing to Argentina 2–1. He also assisted Augustine Eguavoen in coaching the national team.
Samson Siasia was appointed national U-23 coach on January 2007. In 2008, he coached the Nigerian Under-23 Olympic squad to the final against Argentina. In a superbly played series of matches, Nigeria's team earned the Olympic Silver Medals. Earlier in 2008, the U-23 team won the inaugural Intercontinental Cup in Malaysia. This fine team was composed entirely of domestic Nigerian players and won the Cup against many teams headed for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. In addition to his position as head coach of the Under 23 Olympic Eagles, he developed a youth academy in the capital city Abuja, called SiaOne Soccer Academy.
On 17 March 2009, he was reappointed as the
head coach of the under-20 team after the finished a disappointing 3rd in the 2009 African Youth Championship. He
received a six-month contract to coach Heartland
F.C. in July 2010. On 4 November 2010, he was named as
the national team coach to succeed Swedish Lars
Lagerbäck. He was fired on 28 October 2011 for failing to take the Nigeria team to the 2012 African
Nations Cup in Gabon & Equatorial Guinea.
Siasia was one of the five foreign
managers auctioned in Feb 2012 for the new Bengal
Premier League Soccer. His former national team mate, Jay-Jay Okocha, was bought by the same
club from the five icon players up for auction. On the 26th of February, 2016,
he was named by the Nigeria
Football Federation (NFF) as the
Chief Coach of the Nigeria
national football team, the Super Eagles, to be assisted by Salisu Yusuf, Emmanuel Amunike and Alloysius
Agu after the resignation of Sunday Oliseh from the position.
Siasia is one of the most hardworking
and career driven personality in Nigeria soccer. He has notable achievements to
his name and he is still standing strong in the mist of champions.