THE Nigeria Football Federation has paid tribute to Sebastian Brodrick-Imasuen, the former Golden Eaglets coach who died on Wednesday aged 85.
Brodrick-Imasuen became the first coach from Nigeria and Africa in history to win a global football title when he led the Golden Eaglets to the FIFA U-16 World Championship in China in 1985 before the tournament was later renamed the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
The NFF also expressed shock at the death of the history-making coach, which was confirmed by his family to have happened in Benin City, the capital of his native Edo State.
Brodrick-Imasuen, according to his family, was undergoing treatment for stroke and diabetes but passed on at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital in the early hours of Wednesday.
“The NFF and the entire Nigerian football fraternity are sorely pained by the demise of Coach Sebastian Brodrick-Imasuen,” Nigeria Football Federation general secretary Dr Mohammed Sanusi said.
“He worked very hard at his craft and was tireless in his efforts to bring honour to the homeland through the various National Teams he worked with.
“No one can ever forget how he led an unsung group of boys to China to win a first-ever FIFA World Cup for Nigeria and Africa.”
Two years after the historic 1985 triumph, in which the Nigerian teenagers defeated Germany in the final, Brodrick-Imasuen led the Golden Eaglets to another final of the global tournament in Canada, where they lost on penalties to the former Soviet Union.
Brodrick-Imasuen was also assistant coach to Clemens Westerhof as Nigeria’s Super Eagles finished as runners-up at the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria, and he coached several clubs, including Bendel Insurance, El-Kanemi Warriors and Udoji United.
