BREAKING: 1985 U-17 world cup winning coach, Sebastian Broderick is dead

Sebastine Brodericks-Imasuen, the coach who led the Golden Eaglets to victory in the first U-17 World Cup in 1985, has reportedly died.

According to reports obtained by Naija News on Wednesday, January 3, the Nigerian coach had been on life support for more than a year at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

TopNaija confirmed that the deceased had been receiving treatment for an Ischemic stroke since December 2022, and he died at the age of 85.

According to a source, an ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot obstructs or narrows an artery that supplies blood to the brain.

These blood clots often form in arteries that have been damaged by the accumulation of plaques, a condition known as atherosclerosis.

Bamidele Oguntuashe, one of the players he trained for the 1989 U17 World Cup in Scotland, was the first to learn of Brodericks-Imasuen’s death.

According to The PUNCH, the Chairman of the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria Task Force, Harrison Jalla, confirmed the news in a WhatsApp post.

The news platform also cited a family source as reporting the death of the renowned coach, who had been bedridden for several months. He was said to have had a stroke as well as diabetes.

The late coach was a well-known figure in Nigerian football. He was a member of the Nigerian team that competed in the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, where he was recognized for scoring a crucial goal from a free kick to secure Bendel Insurance’s victory in the Challenge Cup in 1972.

As a coach, he was instrumental in the Nigerian team’s remarkable achievement in China in 1985, which stunned the world. Along with Bala Shamaki and Christian Chukwu, he led the team. In 1987, he led the team to another final in Canada, where they were defeated by the then-Soviet Union in a penalty shoot-out.

He also worked as an assistant to Clemens Westerhof in the Super Eagles during his coaching career.

His football career, however, began as a student in 1956, when he played for the Onitsha team in the Challenge Cup. He later joined ECN in 1962 and was a member of the Challenge Cup-winning team in 1965.

Despite being called up to the national team for the first time in 1962, he became a regular player in the run-up to the 1968 Olympic Games. He was well-known for his ability to hit curving shots, particularly from free kicks.

His most notable achievement as a club player came when he scored the game-winning goal in Bendel Insurance’s 3-2 victory over Mighty Jets of Jos in the 1972 Challenge Cup replay at the Liberty Stadium.

This was the first time the national cup final was held outside of Lagos.

He then moved into coaching, successfully guiding the Midwest junior team to a gold medal at the inaugural National Sports Festival in 1973.