One thing to be said about the Michael Emenalo pathway to football fame, is his intentionality and strategic focus.
Emenalo is Nigeria’s best-known football manager who is nevertheless little known in his country. He is headed for the big-spending Saudi Football League in the Middle East.
His job? Manager of the SFL. It is a new position, created for him to coordinate the men and resources needed to uplift the League to world standards. The job is not strange to him – he spent a decade doing the same at Chelsea, the renowned English Premiership Club.
In a sense, we can say that Emenalo has arrived, financially speaking. The Saudis are not sparing expenses to corner and grab whoever can help their League.
In retrospect, he has always been intentional about how to use football to advance a career in a holistic manner. And his intention was clear – to graduate from player to manager. Unlike many of his peers who made good in the round leather game, he chose to kill two birds with a stone. And this was why, after turning professional, he chose to study and play in the United States while his peers headed to Europe to earn the big bucks.
And he was right. Education, more than sheer grit on the pitch, powered him sustainably to the great heights that he chose to climb.
Born in Aba on 14 July 1965, Emenalo began his professional football career with Enugu Rangers International Football Club at the age of 20. He came to the Coal City to join the Nigeria legacy Club in 1985. Rangers was however his stepping stone as he left the same year on a sports scholarship to the United States.
For three years (1985-88) he attended and played for Boston University. Upon graduation, Emenalo thereafter joined his peers to play in Europe. He featured for three professional clubs in three countries – Belgium, Germany and England. Always with an eye on opportunities, he returned to the US in 1996 as part of the original allocated players for the fledgling Major League Soccer.
He was to spent the next two seasons playing in the US League before returning to Europe at the tail end of his career. Already over 30, he played for a Spanish League Club and finally hung his boots after joining and playing for an Israeli League Club.
National Caps
Emenalo equally played for the Nigeria National Team, the Super Eagles. As a left full back, he wore 14 caps for Nigeria. He was part of the Super Eagles team that won Tunisia 1994 African Cup of Nations. He joined the victorious team to Nigeria’s first ever World Cup appearance, USA 1994 FIFA World Cup.
His manager job began in 2006 as director of player development at the Tucson Soccer Academy. It was from here that Emenalo was recruited to join the coaching crew of English Premiership Club Chelsea in 2007.
The break at Chelsea
Three years later, On 18 November 2010, the Club lifted Emenalo from chief scout to assistant first team coach. The following year (2011), he was appointed Chelsea’s Technical Director. It was in this position that he proved his mettle.
Emenalo is regarded as the pillar behind the restructuring that powered Chelsea to success in the golden years 2011 to 2017.
For instance, in 2013 when Chelsea negotiated the return of Jose Mourinho, Emenalo offered to resign to facilitate the transition. His request was turned down; the Club could not let go of the power dynamo behind outstanding signings such as Juan Mata, Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah, N’Golo Kanté, Eden Hazard, and Cesc Fàbregas.
After 10 years with Chelsea, Emenalo eventually left in 2017 to become the Sporting Director of Monaco FC, a position he managed for three years before he left to found his own football management consulting firm.
Laurels at Chelsea
The pathway that Emenalo charted on his journey to fame ended in 10 glorious years that he served at Chelsea FC. In this decade, the Club recorded the following successes:
Premier League Champions: 2010, 2015, 2017
- FA Cup Champions 2009, 2010, 2012, 2017–18
- Football League Cup / EFL Cup: 2015
- UEFA Champions League: 2012
- UEFA Europa League: 2013
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