Rest easy, Stephen Keshi. Thank you for a job well done.

   I am still trying to wrap my head around the news of Stephen Keshi's death. He is reported to have died of cardiac arrest in the wee hours of this morning at the age of 54. I have very fond memories of the man who had become a legend of African football. A man so bubbly and full of life. Indeed, life is a pot of beans.

   Stephen Keshi played 64 times for the national team and scored 9 goals. He oozed charisma so much that at a point in the climax of his career it was difficult for national team administrators to act without Keshi's echo. He became a rallying point for other players. Until his death, his friends and former colleagues fondly addressed him as the 'Big Boss'. Despite retiring from the game over a decade ago, he had remained their 'Captain and leader'. To say the football community just lost an icon and a legend of the game is an understatement.
  When the present NFF leadership did away with his services, a lot of us cried foul. Keshi had prior to his sack spoken of sabotage. Followers of Nigerian football did not find his cry of sabotage strange. He spoke but nobody listened. However we look at it, Keshi did a good job as Super Eagles Supremo. Since he left, Nigerian football became the circus show it was, before his appointment. Simply put, we went back to square one.
Winning the 2013 African Cup of Nations with Nigeria, he became only the second person to achieve such feat after Mahmoud ElGohary of Egypt. Against all odds, he qualified Togo for the 2006 World Cup. After that, he also managed the Mali national team.
He was the type of Manager who never joked with the welfare of his players as evidenced pre Confederations Cup in Brazil, 2013. Any coach that has the nerve to fight for his players is my type. He has my full respect. He was greatly admired and respected by players. He was famed for giving local league players opportunity to break into the national teams. Players like Chigozie Agbim, Sunday Mbah, Gambo Mohammed etc will eternally remain grateful to him in that regard.
   The NFF should push for his immortalisation. Nigeria has two national stadia; Lagos and Abuja. It will not be out of place to name one of them after the Nigerian football legend. It will be an honor well deserved. The football community will never forget the Big Boss. Rest easy senior man, and thank you for a job well done.

Photo credit: bellanaija.com
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