Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, popularly known as the Big Boss was a Nigerian football defender. He was also a football manager of the Nigeria national team. He was one of only two people, along with Egypt's Mahmoud El-Gohary, to have won the Africa Cup of Nations both as a player and a coach.
Background
Stephen Okechukwu Chinedu Keshi was born on January 23, 1962 in Azare, Bauchi state, Nigeria. He hailed from Ilah in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria, a town renowned for producing great football stars and administrators such as the celebrated administrator late Pa John Ojidoh, former captain of Leventis United Matthew Onyeamah, Bendel Insurance legend Sam Ikedi etc.
Education
Keshi started his football career quite early in Ebenezer Primary School in the Ebute-Meta, near COSTAIN, Lagos. He then starred for St. Finbarrs College, Akoka, distinguishing himself in the Principal’s Cup competition among secondary schools. He was drafted into the Greater Tomorrow age-group league at the national level before graduating into the Under-21 National Team, the Flying Eagles.
Keshi started his football club career in 1979 with the African Continental Bank (ACB) team, Lagos. He played just ten games for ACB, scoring one goal, before transferring to the star-studded New Nigerian Bank (NNB) of Benin in 1980. Between 1980 and 1984 he played 42 times for NNB, scoring four goals and winning the WAFU Cup in 1983 and 1984.
Keshi was drafted into the then Green Eagles as a replacement for the ageing skipper of the team Christian Chukwu after the winning of the African Cup of Nations in Lagos in 1980. He led the Eagles to the final of the 1984 African Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast untions in Ivory Coast under coach Adegboye Onigbinde where the team lost 3-1 to Cameroun.
The Nigerian Football Association (NFA) under the chairmanship of Air Commodore Anthony Ikhazoboh, now late, banned Keshi and some of his mates for indiscipline. Keshi travelled to Cote d’Ivoire in 1985 to sign for Stade d’Abidjan where he played 13 times and scored two goals whilst winning Coupe Houphoet Boigny for two years in 1985 and 1986. In 1986 he moved over to Africa Sports of Cote d’Ivoire, playing 22 times, scoring two goals, and winning the double of Côte d’Ivoire Premier Division and the Côte d’Ivoire Coupe.
Keshi then led the charge of Nigerian players playing professionally in Europe when he was signed-on by Belgian club Lokeren in 1986, and in his one season for the club played 28 times and scored 6 goals. He then transferred to the giants of Belgium, Anderlecht, in 1987. He starred for Anderlecht from 1987 to 1991, playing 99 matches and scoring 18 goals. He won the Belgian Cup in 1988 and 1989, and the Jupiler League in 1991.
Between 1991 and 1993, he was with RC Strasbourg in the French League, scoring nine goals in 62 appearances. He then went back to Belgium, playing 40 times for Molenbeek and scoring one goal in the 1993/94 season. He played 20 games for CCV Hydra in 1995 where he scored one goal. In 1996 he took his services to Sacramento Scorpions, USA, playing 16 times whilst scoring three goals. His last club was Perlis FA in Malaysia, playing 34 games in the 1997/98 season and scoring four goals. In 2000, an unprecedented testimonial match was arranged for him in Lagos.
His national team career with the Eagles spanned from 1981 to 1995. He won 64 caps, scoring nine goals. He took over the skipper’s band in 1982, and capped his career with the appearance in the 1994 World Cup in Atlanta, USA with a match against Greece which the Super Eagles won 2-0.
Keshi then took to football coaching, becoming at various times an integral part of the coaching staff for the Nigerian national team. He was the head coach for the Flying Eagles at the 2001 African Youth Championship which also served as qualification for the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship. The team could not qualify.
In 2004 Keshi was appointed the head coach of the Togo national team, and he shocked the world by qualifying the minnows for their first World Cup tournament, Germany 2006. Even with the epochal qualification for the World Cup the Togolese officialdom surprisingly replaced Keshi with the veteran German coach Otto Pfister. The excuse the Togo officials put to use was Togo’s dismal performance in the 2006 African Cup of Nations in Egypt where the team failed to advance to the knock-out stage.
However, Pfister did not last beyond a controversial World Cup campaign that nearly resulted in a players’ strike over pay. Togo remained without a manager until February 2007 when they re-engaged Keshi in time for a friendly against Cameroon.
Keshi worked as manager of the Mali national football team, after being appointed in April 2008 on a two-year deal. He was sacked in January 2010, after Mali’s early exit in the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Keshi was eventually appointed the head coach of the Super Eagles in 2011. He of course led Nigeria to qualification for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, which the Super Eagles went on to win, defeating Burkina Faso 1–0 in the final. The following day, there was the disturbing news that Keshi had handed-in his resignation. The resignation was rescinded a day after. There of course followed the melodrama of Keshi’s sack, re-appointment and eventual sack by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) but that is neither here nor there for now.
Quotations:
"I didn't think we deserved to lose by that score. It was a big improvement on the last game."
"We know we have to win this one, we'll be ok. I'm still confident we'll make the quarter-finals."
"I have not been sacked and I remain in charge of the national team."
"Don't believe him. He thinks he's a superstar, he is trying to finish me."
"They were asking for the money for qualifying for the African Cup of Nations - as some kind of morale booster."
"He is still part of the squad. Will he play another match? That's up to him and how he does in training."
"That's the way the game is. When you lose, you learn from it, you grow from it."
"My future does not depend on me but on any decision by the Togo federation."
"It's only football. There's more to life than that."
Personality
Keshi was a man that had leadership spirit. All through his career, he was involved in leadership role.
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Quotes from others about the person
Mrs. Wasiat Ayanbajo, Headteacher, St Peters Catholic Primary School, Ebute Meta: “He was a benefactor to the school; he jointly with Paul Okoku, another footballer, equipped it with modern communications gadgets. All these people were old students of the school.”
Daniel Ikediobi: “I think that people should learn from little mistakes, if Keshi had made it a point of duty to visit the school, he could have. This cannot be said of his other colleagues who are in his position.”
Daniel Ikediobi: “He did not do much for the school. When he won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations for the country, we made several efforts to bring him to address the students but did not succeed. I am unaware of any financial assistance made to the Old Boys Association or to the school, nothing of such, not even a trophy.”
Daniel Ikediobi: “Stephen Keshi was admitted to the school on scholarship due to his football skills. He was admitted to form three during the 1977/1978 academic session by the founding Principal of the college, Rev. Fr. Dennis Slatery,” Ikediobi told NAN in Lagos on Friday.