Barely 72 hours after the demise of Stephen Keshi, another prominent coach of the senior national team, the Super Eagles, Shuaibu Amodu, has died.
He was aged 58.
Shuaibu Amodu, the Technical Director of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), died Friday night, football body announced, Saturday morning.
A four-time coach of the national team, reportedly died after complaining of chest pain, the NFF said in a post on its Twitter handle.
Amodu was appointed technical director of the Eagles in April 2016.
“That is correct,” NFF Secretary General, Mohammed Sanusi confirmed the passing away of Amodu. “He could not wake up.”
Incidentally, Amodu and Keshi worked together as Nigeria’s head coach and assistant coach respectively at the 2002 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in Mali.
Reacting, immediate past coach of the Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh, said, Saturday, via his Twitter handle, @SundayOOliseh: “Waking up to another devastating horrible news: Amodu Shuaibu,former coach of Nigeria is proclaimed dead! 1st Keshi & now this.God help us!”
“Amodu’s name was synonymous with the Super Eagles. You can’t talk about the history of Super Eagles without Amodu getting prominent chapters.
“He qualified the Super Eagles for the Fifa World Cup in 2002 and 2010, but did not lead the team to the finals. He also qualified the beach soccer national team for the 2006 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup, but did not lead the team at the finals as he refused to travel to Brazil.
“As technical director he was known to be hypertensive, and had rejected taking over the Super Eagles coaching job in February on this ground,” an NFF statement said.
