Posted by 9jabook.com on January 8, 2011 at 4:25am
LITTLE ELM, Texas (AP) — Uche Okafor, a defender on two Nigerian World Cup teams and a stalwart player for the Kansas City Wizards in the U.S., committed suicide this week at his Dallas-area home, authorities said Friday. He was 43.
Okafor's body was discovered Thursday afternoon by his wife in their house in Little Elm, a town about 30 miles northwest of Dallas, Detective Oscar Hinojosa said. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday that he hanged himself in an upstairs hallway.
A friend who could not reach Okafor called Ifeyinwa Okafor, the former star's wife, police said.
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"She was at work and she came home and found him," Hinojosa said.
Okafor played on the 1994 Super Eagles team that won the African Cup of Nations.
Nigeria reached the second round of the World Cup that year and again in 1998, with Okafor on the team both times. He didn't play in 1994 and played in one match in the first round in 1998, a 3-1 loss to Paraguay after they had beaten Spain and Bulgaria. He didn't play in the second-round loss to Denmark
"We are totally shocked by the news. Uche Okafor was a great player who represented his country at the highest level," said Musa Amadu, acting secretary general of the Nigerian Football Federation.
Okafor was with the Wizards from 1996 to 2000, playing in 119 regular-season games and seven Major League Soccer playoff games. His professional finale came on Oct. 15, 2000, when Kansas City beat the Chicago Fire for its only MLS Cup championship.
When Okafor retired before the 2001 season, he was one of only three Kansas City players to have competed every season since the Wizards' inception in 1996, the team said.
"I'm terribly sad to hear of his passing," said Ron Newman, Wizards manager from 1996 through 1999. "He was a big, strong guy, but he was very pleasant and I found him to be very professional. He was just an absolute gentleman."
"I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of him if I was playing against him," he said. "He took no prisoners. But he was fair in everything he did; fair play and good guy. If he knocked you over, he'd pick you up and dust you down."
Kerry Zavagnin, an assistant coach with Sporting Kansas City — the Wizards changed their name last year — played with Okafor during Kansas City's championship season.
"I'm shocked and saddened," he said. "He was a great teammate and most importantly, he was certainly a great man. This is a sad loss for all of us."
Okafor had worked for ESPN the past two years, providing analysis of African soccer. His contract had been renewed last month.
"We are deeply saddened by news of Uche Okafor's death," the cable network said. "He was well-respected for his insightful analysis on ESPN Soccernet Press Pass. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and fans."
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Associated Press writers Diana Heidgerd and Danny Robbins in Dallas, Bill Draper in Kansas City, Mo., and Yinka Ibukun and Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
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Victor Agali, a Nigerian-born footballer for Greek club Levadiakos, has been arrested at Schiphol airport near Amsterdam for carrying two fake passports, Dutch military police said on Monday"At passport control, on December 27, he (Agali) was found to be in possession of a fake passport," said gendarmerie spokesman Robert van Kapel.Upon further investigation, the 31-year-old striker in transit at Schiphol on a voyage from Lagos to Athens, turned out to have two sets of fake travel documents, said Van Kapel."In the one, the page with his personal particulars has been modified, in the other it was the visa," he said.A judge will decide on Monday whether to extend the footballer's provisional detention for further investigation.Agali has played for French teams like Marseille (1996-97), Toulon (1997-98) and Nice (2004-2005), as well as Germany's Schalke 04 (2001-2004).On Christmas Day, a 23-year-old Nigerian was arrested in the United States for the botched bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane bound for Detroit from Schiphol.
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It has been revealed how Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins, extranvagantly squandered about N3.1 trillions while a player of Newcastle.MartinsadvertisementHis former management company, NVA Management Limited who has dragged the player to court over breach of contarct, told the jury how the player’s account almost went red because of his lifestyle.Obafemi Martins was paid £75,000, but allegedly squandered the earnings on an extravagant lifestyleA former Premiership footballer routinely blew his £75,000 a week wages in a matter of days and was constantly overdrawn, a court was told yesterday.Obafemi, ex-Newcastle striker 25, was paid the handsome salary after he joined the club for a £10million fee in August 2006.But despite his extraordinary earnings, his former management team yesterday claimed they repeatedly bailed him out after his bank account continually slipped into the red.The High Court heard that the Nigerian international player would withdraw £40,000 in cash from his bank account at the end of the week.But that would only last him two days, the court heard, as he topped up with a further £25,000 on the Monday morning.He was always overdrawn and repeatedly relied upon NVA Management Limited to ‘manage his life’, the High Court was told.Martins, who owned several fast cars including a top of the range Porsche 4X4, spent the money funding an extravagant lifestyle of luxurious penthouse homes and fine dining.He is now being sued by his former management company which claims that he still owes them 300,000 for sorting out his finances.He told the court that Martins would withdraw £40,000 for the weekend, followed by another £25,000 on the Monday.‘Despite earning these vast sums of money he was constantly overdrawn,’ added Mr Tennink.He said the firm, which looks after the affairs of several footballers, film and music stars, said that Martins had agreed to pay them for simply managing his life.It was under their stewardship that Martins agreed a £2million image rights deal ‘simply for being Mr Martins’.It’s claimed Martins was constantly overdrawn despite earning £75,000-a-weekHe also had lucrative sponsorship deals with various companies including Pepsi and Nike but had not been paid.When the company stepped in to run his affairs they sorted the unpaid contracts, bringing in thousands of pounds.They also organised visas when he travelled to Italy, where he once played for Inter Milan, and sorted out his passport, his mortgage and property valuations.They even arranged critical illness cover and were constantly running up and down the motorway from their London offices to Newcastle in a bid to do all that he required.‘But surely these were things a secretary could do?’ asked Judge Richard Seymour QC, referring to the size of fees charged.‘It was a Jeeves-type of role that they performed.’Mr Tennink protested that managing every aspect of his life was just part of what they did, and asked the judge to bear in mind the sort of figures these players earned.He said Martins had come to them in July 2007 and had agreed a fee of around £300,000 plus 20 per cent of any sponsorship monies they managed to acquire on his behalf.“He asked for these services to be carried out,” Mr Tennink told the court.Before they managed his affairs, Martins had not been paid a penny for his image rights for the use of his name on Newcastle shirts and mugs and had received nothing from his sponsorship deals.He could not even find the contracts he had originally signed, Mr Tennink added.Martins paid the company £67,500 in January last year and another £25,000 in April last year.But the question for the court to decide, said Mr Tennink, was whether there was a ‘binding obligation’ for him to pay the outstanding bill of over £300,000.After Newcastle were relegated from the Premiership last summer Martins was sold for £9million to German Bundesliga Champions Wolfsburg.Martins, who once owned a penthouse apartment overlooking Newcastle’s exclusive Quayside, is fighting the claim.The hearing is scheduled to last for three days.Read more…
