Former Nigeria’s Chief Head Coach, Stephen Keshi, Dies At 54

Former Nigeria’s Chief Head Coach, Stephen Keshi, Dies At 54

Nigerian football great Stephen Okechukwu Keshi is died.

The former Super Eagles coach passed on abruptly in the wee hours of Wednesday in Benin City, the Edo State capital, The Cable reports. He was 54.

This is coming barely a year after the big boss lost his wife of 33 years, Kate, who gave in to a prolonged battle with cancer.

“He was not ill at all, never showed any signs of  illness, but we suspect he never got over the death of his wife,” a friend said.

Keshi became the only Nigerian coach to win the Africa Cup of Nations when he led the Eagles to glory in South Africa, and he joined Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary as the only two men to win the trophy both as a player and a coach.

A product of St. Finbarr’s College, Keshi, nicknamed the “Big Boss”, represented Nigeria from 1982 till 1994 where the team qualified for their first ever World Cup and lifted their second Afcon trophy in Tunisia.

Keshi becomes the fifth member of the golden 1994 team to die, following the demise of Uche Okafor, Thompson Oliha, Wilfred Agbonavbare and Rashidi Yekini.

He is survived by four children and his mother.