Nigeria, on Wednesday, lost one of its illustrious football coach after family source says that the country’s ex international and Coach, Sebastian Brodericks-Imasuen is dead.
According to the source who preferred anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the press on the development yet, Imasuen died in the early hours of Wednesday in Benin City after protracted illness at the age of 85.
Coach Brodericks Imaseun who won Nigeria’s first World Cup at the Under 17 level in China 1985. He has been bedridden for ailments suspected to have been fallout a stroke and diabetes.
The late Edo-born coach was one of the players that represented Nigeria Football Team at the Mexico 1968 Olympic Games.
Coach Brodericks-Imasuen, popularly known as ‘Sabara’ in his playing days would be remembered amongst others for his famous free kick goal that won Bendel Insurance Football Club of Benin the then Challenge Cup in 1972.
This biggest moment as a club player was when he scored the winning goal in the 3-2 victory for Bendel Insurance in the replay of the 1972 Challenge Cup with Mighty Jets Football Club of Jos at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan.
He was known for his curvy shots, especially from free kick/dead ball situations.
As a coach, he was the head of a three-man crew that included Bala Shamaki and Christian Chukwu when the Nigerian team shocked the world in China in 1985.
He led the team again in 1987 to Canada and got to the final before his team narrowly lost through penalty shootouts to the then Soviet Union.
At the third attempt in the competition, his team also lost to Saudi Arabia by penalty shootouts in the quarter finals.
He began his football career in 1956 when as a student, he featured for the Onitsha team in the Challenge Cup.
In 1962, he joined the then ECN and was part of the Challenge Cup winning side of 1965. He was invited to the national team in 1962 but only became a regular in the build-up to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.
He later became a coach and handled the Midwest junior side to win gold medal at the inaugural National Sports Festival in 1973.
At another time, he was the assistant Coach to Clemens Westerhof in the Super Eagles.