Former Nigeria defender and national team coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi famously referred to as the ‘Big Boss’ has been pronounced dead!
A tweet from the Nigeria Football Federation official handle, @TheNFF confirmed the sad news.
“Former Nigeria Captain and Coach, Stephen Keshi, is dead. Reports say the legend died in the early hours of Wednesday.”
Keshi lost his wife Kate Keshi December last year and has been reportedly mourning her death all along. He has is suspected to have died of a heart attack early on Wednesday morning.
Brief profile
Keshi was part of the legendary Super Eagles team that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and later made news becoming the only second person to win the continental glory both as a coach and player.
Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary is the other.
The former central defender has thrice managed the Togolese national team 2004–2006 where they qualified to their first ever world cup but was later sacked for a poor show in Afcon. He rejoined Togo for the second stint around 2007–2008 before heading to Mali up to 2010.
He later returned as Nigeria’s Head coach in 2011 to 2015 where he won the Afcon and qualified for Worldcup 2014 in Brazil. Super Eagles were eliminated from the round of Sixteen by France.