Abuja – A former President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Sani Lulu, has described the death of former Super Eagles captain Stephen Keshi as a great loss to the black race.
Lulu, while reacting to Wednesday’s death of the former Super Eagles coach, said it was “a loss to not only Nigeria, but all Africans and the black race in general.
“Keshi was one of the best things that happened to Nigerian football.
“The revolution which Nigerian football witnessed in the earlier 1980s started with him when he moved to Cote D’Ivoire and then Belgium.
“This later led to other Nigerian players taking their trade to the European country, which no doubt helped the faster development of our football and made our team very strong at that period.’’
The former NFF president said Keshi’s impact on Nigerian football was not only in the area of playing the game.
“He did not only revolutionalise the game in Nigeria by winning the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) as player in 1994, after he retired he took to coaching, and as a coach he won the AFCON in 2013.
“He led Togo to qualify for their first and only World Cup in 2006, and also made an impact in Mali as a coach.
“We also saw how he was able to manage the Super Eagles team to play up to the second round at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
“He is a legend of African football, and his death at this time is not what we expected, but who are we to query God the omnipotent and omnipresent.
“He gives and he takes when he deems fit. We should all take solace with the maximum impact Keshi made while he lived,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the late Stephen Keshi died, according to a family member, of sudden cardiac arrest early on Wednesday.
The former Super Eagles coach whose wife Kate died last December is survived by four children.(NAN)
