Although Stephen Keshi was not necessarily one of the most famous faces in football to be celebrated, his legacy was arguably one of the most diverse. He spent every minute of his life working hard to improve the quality of African football, whether as a coach or player. This is a brief history of his remarkable life.
A Family Man
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Born on the 23rd of January, 1962 in Azare, nobody was to know the great man that Keshi would become. He hailed from Illah, a small town in Oshimili right on the edge of the Niger river.
His early years education took place at Saint Paul’s Catholic Nursery and Primary School, after which he attended Saint Finbarr’s College, both in Lagos.
He met and married his wife, Kate when he was just 20. The two stayed married and raised their three children together, until Kate sadly passed away in 2015, with Keshi passing away just one year later.
A Team Player
In 1979, aged just 17, Stephen Keshi began his professional football career. He played in Lagos, switching frequently from one club to another. His talent was recognised and rewarded in 1985, when he moved to Abidjan and played in their premier league. Just one year later he was talent scouted by a Belgian manager and signed by Sporting Lokeren. This was where his adventure really began.
After playing well for Sporting Lokeren for a little over a year, he was signed by Anderlecht in 1987. He made just shy of 100 appearances for the club, scoring 18 goals and winning two Belgian Cups, as well as the Jupiler League. He then made his way around several other Belgian teams, before making the move to California in 1995.
Whilst there he played for a number of smaller teams, and in 1996 began his training to become a football coach.
A Nigerian National Icon
Caption: Stephen Keshi had a glittering career, both as a player and coach for Nigeria’s Super Eagles
Alongside his football career, Stephen Keshi was always on hand to play for his national team, Nigeria (Super Eagles). He appeared 64 times for the team, scoring 9 goals during these matches. This career earned him 60 caps, making him the nation’s second most capped player at the time of his retirement.
Once his playing career was over, he joined the Super Eagles once again, but this time as a coach. During his coaching career he had great success, helping Nigeria reach number 5 on the FIFA world ranking, the highest to be achieved by an African team. He also saw them qualify for the African Cup of Nations in 2013, which they went on to win.
Keshi remained popular with Nigerians throughout his coaching career for his insistence on inviting players from local league teams to join the senior national team. This move was bold, as Nigeria had several players that showed great promise at European football clubs at the time. However, his decision paid off in 2013, when his team including six home players won the AFCON with the deciding (and solitary) goal being scored by a home based player. To add even more glory to this win, the victory made him one of only two people to have won the cup as both a player and a coach.
Although the Nigerian football team are no longer blessed with the skills of Stephen Keshi, that’s not to say there isn’t a bright future for the team. Captain John Mikel Obi has set the standard of play at an incredibly high level and that’s reflected in their odds for the 2020 World Cup. It seems that whilst Stephen Keshi has left us, his team spirit continues to live on.
His Legacy Continues
Perhaps the best known legacy of Stephen Keshi is the Stephen Keshi Stadium, which was so named in 2018. It was in that year that it first held the African Championships in Athletics, after twenty years of work to ensure that the stadium was structurally sound and provided comfortable accommodation for some 22,000 people.
Of course, the other way that Keshi’s legacy lives on is with his children. Femi Keshi, his only son, shares his father’s love of sports and is successful in the field of business. He was quoted as being grateful for the attention to detail that his father taught him, which no doubt helped him forge that business career. Femi, or Stephen Keshi Junior as he is sometimes known, still visits his father’s former teammates from time to time.
Keshi’s daughters, Stephanie and Jennifer are also successful in their lives, both finding love and happiness and always remembering the best times with their mother and father.
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