TVC E. The burial rites of the passage of the late football legend Stephen Keshi has commenced. The requiem Mass for the late former coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi, has started at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Airport road in Benin, Edo State.
Keshi died on June 8 in Benin at the age of 54, months after the end of his four-year spell as coach of the Super Eagles.
The former international and Africa Cup of Nations winning player and coach, 54, suddenly died from cardiac arrest in the early hours of Wednesday, June 8 in Benin City.
His death came few months after he lost Kate, his wife of 35 years, to cancer.
In a statement, the family of the late footballer announced that a church service will hold at St Paul Catholic Church, Benin City by 9am on Thursday, July 28.
His remains will be moved to the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, where a novelty match organized by his former teammates led by former Super Eagles captain and coach Austin Eguavoen will be staged in his honour.
Afterwards, his corpse will depart for Asaba, the Delta State capital, where former Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan will recieve him at the stadium named after him on Nnebisi Road.
Thereafter, his body will leave for Illah, his country home, where the Obi of Illah, His Royal Highness Obi Gbemudu with his high chiefs will recieve him.
Moments later, a requiem mass will hold at St John Catholic Church before his remains will be moved to his residence for an hour-long lying-in-state for an hour and followed by an internment at the same venue.
Keshi captained Nigeria to win their second Afcon in 1994.
As coach, Keshi helped Togo reach the 2006 World Cup in Germany before he was sacked and replaced with German Otto Pfister, few months to the tournament. He also handled Mali which he took to the 2010 Afcon in Angola.
He led the Super Eagles to success at Afcon 2013 where they won after 19 years. He managed the side to the Fifa Confederation Cup 2013 and 2014 Fifa World Cup and became the first African coach to reach the knock out stage where they fell to France in the Round of 16.
However, his side failed to qualify for the 2015 Afcon which led to his third and final disengagement by the Nigeria Football Federation after a long and fractious relationship.
Keshi was the only Nigerian coach to have won the Africa Cup of Nations and second African to win the trophy both as a player and a coach.
He started out with St. Finbarr’s College, Lagos and featured for domestic club sides ACB Football Club and New Nigeria Bank before leading a generation of Nigerian footballers abroad when he went to Cote d’Ivoire’s Stade d’Abidjan and Africa Sports. He then made his way on to Belgium where he played for Lokeren, Anderlecht, RC Strasbourg, among many others.
His sad passing brings to five the number of former players in the ‘Golden Generation’ of Nigerian football to die. Among the triumphant Super Eagles squad of 1994, Uche Okafor, Thompson Oliha, Rashidi Yekini and Wilfred Agbonavbare have all died.
