Seyi Olofinjana: Rescue Mission to Grasshopper

After helping a relatively small Wolverhampton Wanderers gained promotion to the English elite division-Premier League, in 2017 and also played in the 2019 -2020 Europa League and got up to the quarter finals, in his capacity as the club’s loan manager, another big challenge now awaits Seyi Olofinjana, as he hopes to help revive Swiss sleeping giant, Grasshopper back to where they once belonged

Ex-Wolves and Nigeria midfielder, Seyi Olofinjana has been named as technical director at Switzerland’s most successful club, Grasshopper Zurich as he aims to help “steer the club in the right direction”.

The 40-year-old will oversee the football department at the newly-promoted Super League outfit and immediately find the right candidate to fill the ‘position of the head coach’ .
The former Stoke City, Hull City and Cardiff City player was snapped up from English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he was most recently loan-manager and had previously worked in various roles.

“This is an important role and I look forward to working together with the amazing people at Grasshopper to hopefully steer this massive club in the right direction,” Olofinjana told BBC Sport Africa, after beating off stiff competition from other top applicants.
“A club as decorated and influential as Grasshopper deserves stability and we need to find the right ways of restoring its lost football glory.”

Olofinjana, who holds two master’s degrees as a sports director and project manager, has inherited a club keen to bounce back from the humiliating lows of 2019 when it suffered relegation from the Swiss top flight for the first time in 68 years.

He becomes the latest African to hold the technical director position in Europe after compatriot Michael Emenalo held similar roles at English side Chelsea and French club Monaco.

After two years in the Swiss Challenge League (second tier), the Hoppers sealed promotion last week and the Nigerian insists they are back where they truly belong.
“The history of the club and incredible fanbase clearly reflects a side that deserves better,” he added.

“It is our collective job to set this team in the right direction and among the elite clubs competing for success.”

Olofinjana, who is expected in Zurich in the next few days, will take over from Jimmy Berisha, the interim sports director who will now return to the position of managing director.
One of the first assignments expected of the former Wolverhampton Wanderers star is the appointment of a new head coach.

Having left his role at Wolves as one of the managers in the club’s Academy in April 2021, Olofinjana has expressed his excitement about the move.
“I’m delighted to be part of a historic club like GC. I hope we can re-establish GC at the top of the Super League together,” he told the club’s website.

Grasshoppers, historically the most successful club in Swiss football history, were taken over by a Hong Kong company owned by Jenny Wang, the wife of Fosun boss Gup Guangchang, a year ago having fallen on hard times and being relegated.
Four Wolves players -Leo Bonatini, Connor Ronan, Oskar Buur Rasmussen and Toti Gomes are currently on loan with the Swiss second tier side.

Former Wolves board member Sky Sun is the club’s president, while Wolves’ ex-chief European scout Bernard Schuiteman had been Grasshoppers’ sporting director before leaving in February.
It’s believed Olofinjana will be named as Schuiteman’s successor in the coming weeks, with the 40-year-old still working at Wolves for now.

Olofinjana became Wolves’ first ‘loans pathway manager’ two years ago having previous helped coach at academy and under-23 level to oversee an expanding group of loan players, who this season include Dion Sanderson (Sunderland), Patrick Cutrone (Valencia), Rafa Mir (Huesca), plus a host of youngsters and the four players at Grasshoppers.

Wolves will look to replace Olofinjana this summer. The ex-Nigeria international midfielder told The Athlectics last year that, having achieved two masters qualifications in sporting directorship and project management (not to mention a degree in chemical engineering) he was looking to land a sporting director role.

Moving to Grasshoppers, a club with close ties to Wolves, appears to be ideal.
He said last year: “If I want to be in football, what’s my strength? Where can I apply my knowledge? I think it’s in the admin side, so I told myself I’m going to learn to be a sporting director.

“I can learn and climb the ladder, hence the role as loans manager. For me, it’s a mini sporting director role.
Olofinjana started his career at Crown FC of Ogbomoso in his native Nigeria, before a stint in the country’s topflight with Kwara United led to a summer 2004 switch to Wolves via Norwegian club Brann Bergen.

He spent four years at Wolves before moving to Stoke City in July 2008 and after a season he joined rivals Hull City for £3m in August 2019.

Stints at Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday in England followed before ending his European career where it all began in Norway this time with IK Start.

Olofinjana made over 50 appearances for Nigeria and represented the Super Eagles in three Africa Cup of Nations in 2004, 2008 and when they finished third in 2010.