Monday, January 10, 2011

Nigerian star Uche Okafor is dead

Uche Okafor
Former Nigeria international, Uche Okafor, was found dead at his Dallas, Texas home in the United States of America (USA) early on Thursday.
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Ben Iroha, a former Nigerian team-mate of Uche between 1990 and 1994, told SuperSport.com that he received the shock news via a telephone conversation from the United States that the 43-year-old has died. “Seriously I still find it hard to believe when I got the call from the US yesterday (Thursday) evening. This is a really sad way to begin the year,” said Iroha.
Iroha added that he is yet to know what really transpired up to the death of his former teammate.
“I am yet to know what happened. But I feel so sad to hear this because he was a very marvelous friend and brother,” said the former Heartland assistant coach.
However, there are still no details concerning surrounding the death of the former winner of the Africa Cup of Nations. The former Nigerian footballer was said to have taken his daughter to school early Thursday and was later found dead in his US home.
The police in the United States are said to have cordoned off the home of Okafor, as a coroner is carrying out an inquest into circumstance surrounding his death.
Okafor’s professional career began at defunct ACB of Lagos before he moved to KRC Mechelen.
The late Nigerian player has also played for Hannover 96 before ending his career at Sporting Kansas City, formerly known as Kansas City Wizards.
Late Okafor also featured in one of the four matches of Nigeria’s Super Eagles at the 1994 Fifa World Cup in the USA. He was also a football pundit on African football for ESPN until his death.
The Wonders or soccer.

Mourinho wins Coach of the Year award

Jose Mourinho was named world coach of the year on Monday for securing the treble of Champions League, Serie A title and Italian Cup with Inter Milan last season.
The 47-year-old Portuguese - known as the 'Special One' - edged out Spain's World Cup winning coach Vicente Del Bosque and Barcelona's Pep Guardiola, who he is now crossing swords with as Real Madrid boss.
In landing the Champions League with Inter - when they beat Bayern Munich in the final last season - he became only the third coach to win European club football's most prestigious trophy with two different clubs having first landed it with Porto in 2004.
The others were Ernst Happel, with Feyenoord in 1970 and Hamburg in 1983, and Ottmar Hitzfeld, who guided Borussia Dortmund to the 1997 trophy and then Bayern Munich in 2001.
Mourinho, never one to hide his high opinion of himself had in typically punchy fashion insisted last month that he and not Del Bosque was truly deserving of the honour.
Jose Mourinho © Gallo Images
"Me, I've made my choice. 11 months work, 57 matches played, three titles including the most important of all, 'THE' tournament, the Champions League. I have won everything, I could not do any more than that, equally so for the players."
The Wonders or soccer.

.:Barclays Premier League: Beckham arrives at Tottenham

Beckham in a practice session
David Beckham arrived at Tottenham's training ground on Monday, with the Premier League club still hoping they can take the former England captain on loan.


The Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder turned up at Spurs' facility in Chigwell, northeast London for a medical but did not speak to reporters. Tottenham, who have reached the knockout phase of the Champions League, have said Beckham will only be training with them but manager Harry Redknapp is still hopeful of signing the player on loan during the rest of the US off-season.
Beckham, after his initial visit, returned to Chigwell later Monday wearing Spurs training kit, fuelling speculation the loan deal could yet go ahead. The 35-year-old has not played for an English club since he turned out for Manchester United on the final day of the 2002-03 season.
He is set to return to Chigwell on Tuesday to train with the Spurs first team squad ahead of their match against league leaders United at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

The Wonders or soccer.