Source: THISDAY LIVE
President of the Confederation of
African Football, Alhaji (Dr) Issa Hayatou was one of the first senior
citizens in world football to commiserate with the NFF and the Nigeria
football family over the death of Nigeria legend Stephen Keshi
wednesday.
In his letter addressed to NFF President
Amaju Pinnick, Hayatou wrote: “We have learned with great dismay and
immense sadness the passing away of African and Nigerian football legend
Stephen Okechukwu Keshi thursday.
“Even if Stephen Keshi left us too
early, he achieved an incredible career, both as a player and as a
coach, being one of only two people in African football history, along
with Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary, to have won the Africa Cup of Nations as
both a player, in Tunisia in 1994, and as a coach, in South Africa in
2013.
“After having played mostly with French
and Belgian clubs, Stephen Keshi became a tremendous professional coach,
coaching the Togo national football team between 2004 and 2006, and
incredibly achieving the dream of any nation by making the West African
nation to qualify to its first ever World Cup in 2006 in Germany.”
In his own tribute, also addressed to
Pinnick, president of the Tanzania Football Federation, Jamal Malinzi
wrote: “I am truly sorry to hear of the loss of Nigeria and Africa’s
football legend Stephen Keshi. In this sorrowful time, I would like on
behalf of the football community in Tanzania to extend to you our
heartfelt condolences…
“Though he is gone, his service to football has not lasted with his passing as he will always have an everlasting legacy in the game of football.”
“Though he is gone, his service to football has not lasted with his passing as he will always have an everlasting legacy in the game of football.”
Pinnick, NFF 1st Vice President Seyi
Akinwunmi and General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi were the first persons
to sign the condolence register opened for the departed legend at the
Glass House in Abuja.
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