Technical Adviser of Nigeria Women Premier League side, Rivers Angels and former head coach of the senior women’s national football team, the Super Falcons, Edwin Okon has described the death of former Super Eagles coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi as a big loss to the country.

Keshi died in the early hours of Wednesday after complaining of irregular heartbeats and pain in his legs. He passed on before reaching the hospital.

Before the training session of his team this morning, Okon observed a minute silence with players and officials of the club in honour of the late gaffer.

In a chat with the club’s media, the former Super Falcons gaffer said the news came to him as a shock.

“It was a shocking news to me because I was quite close to him and when I heard the news this morning, I was demoralized.

“Before we started training this morning, I called the players to observe a minute silence for the great coach. It’s a very big loss to Nigerian coaches as well,” said Okon.

During his reign as Super Eagles coach, Keshi won the Africa Cup of Nations, qualified the team for the FIFA World Cup finals, led the team at the FIFA Confederations Cup and steered the team to the Round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup.

Jessica Amadi