Stephen Keshi was born as Stephen Okechukwu Chinedu Keshi on 23rd of January, 1962 in Azare, Bauchi State, Nigeria.
He was a descent of Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta state, Nigeria. He was popularly called “Big Boss”.
He was both a former Nigerian football defender and a football Manager of the Nigeria national team. He played for Nigeria in the 1994 African Cup of Nations, tenaciously displaying skilful performances alongside his teammates, hence winning the much-competed gold medal in the Nations Cup.
Stephen Okechuku Keshi broke history alongside Egypt’s Mohmoud El-Gohary as they became the only two people to win the African Cup of Nations as both player and coach.
During his professional football career, Keshi predominantly played with Belgian clubs.
In a bid to advance in the game of football, Keshi left for the United States of America, enrolled in a coaching school to be educated with the nitty-gritty of football management.
Later in the year 1996, Nigeria’s Augustine Eguaveon, his football colleague joined him. They played together for the short-term Sacramento Scorpions in California.
The duo played as the backbone of the team’s defence. Keshi was a member of the Nigerian national team coaching staff, most particularly as the Junior Eagle’s head coach at the 2001 African Youth Championship which served also as a qualification for the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship. However, the qualification was without success.
In the early period of a professional coaching career, Keshi coached the Togo National football team between 2004 and 2006. He exhibited ample competence in managing the team that made them to
In April 2008, Keshi was appointed on a two-year deal as a manager of the Mali national football team. When Mali was eliminated out of the group stage in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Keshi became fired as Mali’s head Coach in January 2010.
In 2011, Stephen Keshi was named the head coach of the Nigerian National Team. He qualified Nigeria for the 2013 Nations’ Cup and finally sealed their outing with a humungous victory after Super Eagles defeated Burkina Faso in the final.
Keshi worked his way to become the first African coach to qualify two African countries (Togo and Nigeria) to the World Cup finals; a record no African has broken. He achieved this feat by qualifying Nigeria to the Brazil 2014 World Cup after thrashing their Ethiopian counterpart with 4 goals to 0ne on aggregate in a playoff. He proved his mettle by paving Nigeria’s way to becoming the first country to achieve both an African Cup of Nations trophy and World Cup qualification in 2013.
Stephen Keshi was married to Nkem Kate Keshi (Aburime) for over 30 years. On 10th of December 2015, his wife, Kate gave up the ghost after a three years battle with cancer.
Six months later, Keshi joined her. Keshi died in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 7th of June 2016 at the age of 54. Keshi had suffered from Hypertension and left to himself after the burial of his lovely wife. He died of Heart Attack in Benin City.
He is survived by four children.
