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FORMER NIGERIAN INTERNATIONAL AND EAGLES ASSISTANT COACH JOE ERICO IS DEAD

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Former Nigeria international goalkeeper and later an assistant coach to the Super Eagles, Joseph Eric, better known as Erico, is dead. He was nicknamed ‘Erico’ by ardent NEPA FC fans while he was the team’s goalkeeper.

According to information gathered by Sports Village Square, Erico died Wednesday morning as he did not wake up from his sleep the previous night.

Godwin Enakhena, popular sports journalist and convener of the Families United by Sports’  WhatsApp  platform relayed the telephone conversation he had with the late football legend’s wife, Mosunmola runs thus:

“Mosunmola: He was ill for about three days and we took him to the hospital, he complained of body pain. He was okay and we came back home. But just yesterday night, he started doing somehow and he later slept. I tried to wake him up this morning but he was stone dead”.

With his passage, the trio of technical crew that guided Nigeria to qualify for 2002 World Cup and the Mali 2002 Africa Cup of Nations have passed on.

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Both Stephen Keshi and Amodu Shaibu died two days apart in 2016.

Erico, an apostle of the Brazilian brand of football was popularly known as ‘Jogo Bonito’. He was in the Green Eagles team that placed third at the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations in Ethiopia.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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