President General, Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC), Rafiu Ladipo has joined the football fraternity to pay glowing tributes to late Super Eagles coaches, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi and Shuaibu Amodu, saying they were dependable character and great achievers respectively.
Dr. Ladipo made the remarks in Lagos on Wednesday at a mourning and prayer session organised by NFSC for the souls of two great Nigerian coaches, both who died last week in Benin, Edo State.
Keshi, the only Nigerian to have won the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) as a player and as a coach, died in the early hours of Wednesday, June 8 of cardiac arrest, while Amodu, noted for guiding the Super Eagles to qualify for two World Cup finals (2002, 2010) in a four-time stint with the team, passed on three days later.
The Supporters' Club President-General, in his opening remarks at the prayer session which was jointly conducted by a Muslim and Christian clerics, Alhaji Ridwa Hammed of Olaribigbe Central Mosque, Mushin, Lagos and Pastor Badmus Olanrewaju of The Faithfuls Church, Idi-Iroko, Maryland, Lagos, noted that the late coaches contributed so much to Nigerian football and on several occasions made Nigerians proud as player as well as coaches and deserve to be remembered and appreciated even in death.
"We're gathered here today to mourn and pray for two great coaches, who during their life time on several occasions have brought honours and respect to this country.
"Keshi we all know served the country with all his heart as a player and a coach, all his achievement though did not go down unrecognised as former President, Goodluck Jonathan appreciated him and the Super Eagles for winning the African Cup of Nations in 2013 with a National Award of Commander of the Order of Niger (CON). Having achieved as these it'll not be easy to forget him. Keshi was a dependable player