Sebastine Brodericks-Imasuen, who led Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets to win the first FIFA U-17 World Cup in 1985 is dead. He was aged 85.
The news was confirmed via WhatsApp by Harrison Jalla, the chairman of the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria (PFAN) Task Force.
He wrote: “Veteran Coach Sebastian Brodericks Imaseun, who won Nigeria’s first World Cup at the under-17 level, is no more. The coach, who has been bedridden for a long time, died in the early hours of this morning, according to family sources.”
Chuka Imasuen, the son of the late coach, had last year made a passionate appeal for support when he revealed his father had a stroke and diabetes, which the family had spent millions on.
The Nigerian coach was on life support at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital for over a year.
He reportedly suffered from a stroke and diabetes.
The 85 year old Brodericks-Imasuen had been diagnosed with Ischemic stroke in December 2022 and had been receiving treatment before he died.
Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks or narrows an artery leading to the brain.
The late coach represented Nigeria at the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968 and famously scored from a free kick to win the then Challenge Cup for Bendel Insurance in 1972.
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 losing through a penalty shoot-out to the then-Soviet Union.
At the third attempt in the competition, his team lost to Saudi Arabia by a penalty kick in the quarter-finals.
At another time, he was the assistant to Clemens Westerhof in the Super Eagles.
He began his football career in 1956 when as a student, he featured for the Onitsha football 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 was noted for his curving shots, especially from free-kick situations.
He was popularly called ‘Sabara’. His 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 of Jos at the Liberty Stadium. That was the first time the national cup final was held outside Lagos.
He later became a coach and handled the Midwest junior side to win a gold medal at the inaugural National Sports Festival in 1973.
The octogenarian also handled Udoji United, Bendel Insurance, and El Kanemi Warriors, among other clubs, during his active coaching days.
