It's a dagger through our heart that the
world lost another great sport personality.
Nigeria's very own 'Muhammad Ali' -
Stephen Keshi - the big boss - he came, he
saw and conquer(Nigeria football). A
leader, a commander, and a motivator
with this rare undying spirit, paid his due
to fatherland. It no more new he has join
the list of Nigeria's past hero. He surely left
legacies.
In the light of this, I will be sharing a
compendium of his stand out football
achievements, so that we can understand
the value of a gem that has just been lost.
Every football fans in Nigeria have different
perception about this man, howbeit his
records achievement still remain. Let's go
he into main the issue:
Stephen Okechukwu Keshi (born 23
January 1962) was a Nigerian former
football defender . He is was
football manager of Nigeria. Some of his
records
include the following;
1. He is one of only two people, along with
Egypt 's
Mahmoud El-Gohary , to have won the
Africa Cup of Nations as both a player and
a coach.


2.Between 2004 and 2006 Keshi coached
the
Togo national football team , unexpectedly
bringing them to their first World Cup
tournament, Germany 2006 . Having
secured Togo's unlikely qualification, he
was promptly replaced by German coach
Otto Pfister prior to the World Cup finals,
after Togo showed a dismal performance
and failed to advance to the knock-out
stage in 2006 African Cup of Nations in
Egypt.


3. Keshi is the first and only indigenous
(Nigerian)
coach to win the african cup of nations
for Nigeria.


4. Nigeria never won any trophy since he
left the
national team as the captain. It was only
after his return to national team as the
coach,
that Nigeria won its first trophy since
1994.


5. On 18 November 2013, Stephen keshi
set a
record in African football by being the
first African coach to successfully qualify
two African nations (Nigeria and Togo) to
the World Cup Finals. He also helped
Nigeria become the first country to
achieve an African Cup of Nations trophy
and World Cup qualification, both in 2013.


6.In september 2014 keshi was rank 14th
best
national team coach in the world just
within his
first three year as the coach of Nigeria
national
side.


7.The 'big boss' as keshi is fondly called
adopt attacking
style of football even when his team is
trailing,when playing against highly rated
opponents, or when playing without his
key players, example is
the 2013 FIFA co-federation cup when his
team
was without Emenike, Moses and, Onazi
who
were then in top form. In an interview
with
Fifa.com before Nigeria's opening opening
march against Iran Keshi said;
I like attacking football. I don't believe you
need to sit back and load behind. You've
got
to be open and make the people come to
the
stadium. They spend so much money –
they
need to get value for it. Good, attacking
football is what I like. Of course there must
be purpose and discipline and
togetherness
to make the good football work.


8. Keshi never lost any competitive match
since
2011 when he was appointed by NFF.
However his
unbeating run was ended by forlan in a
confederation
cup match. Interestingly, it was a end to
forlan's
goal drought in 12 matches.


9. Keshi's team don't lose match without
replying
opponent with goals except on very few
occasion
notably Spain and France......and...


10. He remains the first and only Nigerian
footballer to win the African Nations Cup
for Nigeria as a player and as a coach. He
is
also the first former national team captain
to play at the World Cup and also win a
World
Cup ticket for Nigeria as a coach.


11. He is the the first Nigeria national team
captain to secure and lead Nigeria to its
first world cup, where Nigeria reach
second round.


12. He lead Nigeria to world cup second
round thrice; twice as the team captain in
1994 and 1998 and once as a coach, in
2014.


*WRITTEN BY EMBELL*
REFERENCES
http://m.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/
m=6/news=keshi-tactical-discipline-has-
let-african-teams-down-2368609.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Stephen_Keshi
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/
sports/168374-fifa-names-keshi-best-
african-coach.html
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/
confed-cup-forlan-ends-keshis-unbeaten-
run/151077

seun
lalasticlala
let Nigerians celebrate this fallen hero.

Rest in peace keshi, so death has no respect for anyone?

chikel2000:
Rest in peace keshi, so death has no respect for anyone?

True talk

TheGoodJoe:
From one of my Old Post after Coach Keshi lost his Super Eagles coaching job.

[b]
Thank you Coach Keshi for your hard work. The new stars you discovered for the country and the home based lads you exposed and gave them hope for a better life.

Coach Keshi and his crew are heroes. I will never forget them.

*******************************************************************


My Best Moments Under Coach Keshi and his crew.

The Super Eagles draw against Catalonia. Nice goal by Bright Dike.
The Super Eagles success in defeating Cote d'Ivoire at AFCON.
The demolition of Mali at the AFCON.
The Triumph over Burkina Faso and the win of the AFCON.
Mikel's lovely goal against Uruguay at the Confederations cup.
Mikel's dominating performance against Spain.
Mikel's nomination for the African Player Of The Year.

The turn around performance of the Super Eagles in the CHAN game against Morocco.
The equalising goal by Uzoenyi against Morroco at the CHAN. A lovely curling goal.
The winning goal by Ibrahim Abubakar. The dance after the goal was funny and memorable.

Nigeria's World Cup Qualification winning game. The way people of Calabar ran to the section of the VIP crew to Celebrate with the Governor of the Cross River state - Gov. Liyel Imoke.

The draw against Italy. The man of the match performance of Shola Ameobi. One assist and A Lovely goal by Shola Ameobi after receiving an amazing cross from Benjamin Francis.

The defeat of Bosnia at the World Cup. A Nice slot in by Osaze and a last minute foot save by Enyeama, stopping Dzeko's chance of a last minute equaliser.
The brace of Ahmed Musa against Argentina.

Finally the brace and goals from Ahmed Musa against Sudan. The lovely goal from Aaron Samuel. Despite all the criticism of bringing a player from the Chinese league, showed Aaron Samuel had quality.

Miss you Da Big Boss and his crew.[/b]

Yeah, that morocco comeback. The whole of the media saying their life has just been Keshied, giving Keshi a dictionary meaning as "a sudden turn-around".

Plus the Italy match at fulham which ended 2-2. It was such a massive game of 2 firece attacking sides. KESHI!