Stephen Keshi Centre celebrates former Super Eagles boss’ seventh anniversary

Stephen Keshi

The Stephen Keshi Football and Vocational Centre (SKFVTC), yesterday, rolled out the red carpet to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the demise of one of Nigeria’s biggest football heroes, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi.

Keshi was a colossus in Nigerian football. Apart from being the first Nigerian to captain a team to the senior FIFA World Cup, he was also the first and still the only footballer from the country to win the African Cup of Nations as a player and also as a coach.

Every year, SKFVTC remembers the legendary ‘Big Boss’ on July 7 with a yearly memorial lecture and the Stephen Keshi National U-17 Football Tournament in commemoration of his lifetime achievements in football and sensitise the football family on the need to remember those who served the country meritoriously.

According to SKFVTC, this year’s activities would have marked the sixth edition of the yearly lecture and U-17 tournament, but the events had to be put off because of the suspended NLC/TUC strike earlier scheduled yesterday.

Speaking on the anniversary activities, Louis Brown Ogbeifun and Augustine Popo, who are chairman and secretary respectively of the SKFVTC board of trustees, said in a statement, “Keshi died in Benin City on June 7, 2016 and after his demise, the Late Enogie of Obazuwa, Edun Akenzua, a close friend of the ‘Big Boss,’ donated a vast land for a football village, which would turn Obazuwa into a tourist destination. Sadly, the Enogie also has joined his ancestors. Though getting support for them has been challenging, the Board of the SKVTC remains unrelenting and working hard to actualize Enogie’s dream.

“The SKFVTC, Obazuwa, occupies a vast plot of land measuring 1,000 feet by 1,000 feet, which is close to a seaport