A Nigerian football legend and ex-international, Henry Nwosu (MON), is dead. He died today, March 14, at the age of 62 years.
Breaking the news of Nwosu’s passing, a former striker, Mr Segun Odegbami, aka ‘Mathematical Odegbami’, said in a statement:
“After 5 days in hospital battling for his life, the one I call ‘Youngest Millionaire’ passed on at 4:00 am this morning at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos where he had been in Intensive Care since Wednesday.
“It is with deep pain in my heart that I have to be the conveyor of the news of the death of Henry Nwosu MON.
“May he rest peacefully with our Creator in Heaven.”
Nwosu was the youngest member of Nigeria’s victorious 1980 African Nations Cup squad, and scored the only goal for Nigeria at the 1980 Olympics.
He also played in the 1982, 1984 and 1988 tournaments, finishing runners up in the latter two, with his last game for Nigeria coming in 1991.
He spent his career at home with New Nigeria Bank (NNB) of Benin City and African Continental Bank (ACB) of Lagos.
He also played for ASEC Mimosas FC of Ivory Coast and Racing FC Bafoussam of Cameroon.
Nwosu was an assistant to former Eagles teammate Samson Siasia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where Nigeria won the silver medal.
He was also an assistant to Onigbinde that took the Super Eagles to 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
On 27 September 2008, Nwosu was appointed as the coach for the Nigerian U-17 team.
However, he was removed from the post in April 2009 after a string of poor results in preparation for the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Nwosu was hired that August as coach of Union Bank F.C.
In October 2013, he was named coach for Abeokuta club Gateway United F.C.