Football personalities, stars and authorities in Togo have lined out plans to stage an exhibition match in honour of the country’s former national team coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, who died last week Wednesday in Benin City.
Although the late Keshi was a Nigerian and played for the Super Eagles, which he captained to win the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994 and to their first World Cup campaign at USA ’94, the Togolese have opted to be part of post-humus honour for the legend, since he also qualified their national team, The Hawks, for their only appearance at the Mundial so far.
With that in view, an exhibition game has been put on the cards, which will see players from the 2006 Togolese team face off against the 2016 side in a memorial match.
Keshi led the tiny nation to qualify for its first ever World Cup in Germany 2006 but he was later sacked and could not take the squad to the competition proper, after falling out Togo’s biggest star, Emmanuel Adebayor.
Dramatically, the same former Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham and Real Madrid striker will lead his teammates from the 2006 era to face the present day Hawks in the exhibition game on Sunday at Stade Municipal in Lome, under the cards of the Francophone West African country’s sports writers union, Association des Journalistes Sportifs du Togo (AJST).
President of the union, Aime Ekpe told goal.com on Thursday that the game will be organized in conjunction with Togo’s sport ministry in honour of the late Nigerian tactician.
Ekpe also informed Goal that Togolese Football Federation (FTF) is in talks with Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to hold a full-fledged grade-A friendly between the two countries in Lome or in Lagos as part of their joint-honour for Keshi.
He said gates will be thrown open for fans to come in and pay their respects to the former defender whose first of two tenures in charge of the Sparrow Hawks took their country into the big leagues.
“The game is between players of the team that Stephen Keshi qualified for the 2006 World Cup like Emmanuel Adebayor and the present generation of the national team,” Ekpe told Goal .