Former Ghanaian international Michael Essien has paid tribute to ‘his friend’, the deceased Nigerian former player and manager Stephen Keshi.
Essien was reacting to the shocking news that the 54 year old had died of a heart attack in Benin City in his homeland.
Essien penned a quick post on Instagram to mourn the passing of the former player.
“African has lost another football legend,Nigeria has lost an football icon and I have lost a friend,May your soul rest in perfect peace STEPHEN KESHI????????#RIP” he wrote.
Keshi died of a reported heart attack in Nigeria early Wednesday, a development that came as a shock to his family, the Nigerian football fraternity and the world of soccer as a whole.
A former captain of the Nigeria national team, Keshi was one of only two men to win the Africa Cup of Nations both as a player and a coach.
After his football career with one of the teams he is remembered at for his excellent play being Belgian club Anderlecht, Keshi managed Togo and Mali. He also coached the Nigerian national team over three spells, leading Nigeria to the 2013 Nations Cup title in South Africa and the last 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
But he was sacked in July, 2015.
As a player, Stephen Keshi was part of the Super Eagles team that won the Nations Cup in 1994 and narrowly missed out on a World Cup quarter-final place the same year.

African has lost another football legend,Nigeria has lost an football icon and I have lost a friend,May your soul rest in perfect peace STEPHEN KESHI????????#RIP

A photo posted by Michael Essien (@iam_ess) on Jun 7, 2016 at 9:06pm PDT

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