How Joe Erico complained of body pains before he died – Wife

On Thursday, Mosunmola Eric, the wife of former Super Eagles goalkeeper and assistant coach, Joe Erico, who died at the age of 71, says her husband had been ill for three days and complained of body pains before his death.

The widow said she found her husband dead when she tried to wake him up on Thursday morning.

“He was ill for about three days and we took him to the hospital, he complained of body pain. He was okay and we came back home. But just yesterday (Wednesday) night, he started feeling somehow and he later slept. I tried to wake him up this morning but he was stone dead,” Mosunmola said.

Erico, alongside Amodu Shaibu and Stephen Keshi, became the first indigenous coaches to qualify Nigeria for the World Cup in 2002 but the they fired before the competition, following a spat with the authorities.

The fallen ex-international is regarded as one of the country’s finest shot stoppers and kept goal for Electricity Connectors of Nigeria during his playing career in the 1960s and 1970s, before he became coach of Lagos side NEPA, after he retired from the game.

Popularly known as Jogo Bonito, Erico was Nigeria’s first choice keeper at the 1976 AFCON in Ethiopia, where the country won bronze.

He was also part of the national team that qualified for the 1980 Olympic Games, but couldn’t attend the event following a boycott by the country.

Erico is survived by wife, Mosunmola, and children, amongst who is D’Tigers star, Michael Eric, who represented Nigeria at the FIBA World Cup in China, in 2019.