34 Years After, Nigerians Remember Sam Okwaraji Who Died Playing For Eagles

34 Years After, Nigerians Remember Sam Okwaraji Who Died Playing For Eagles

By Gbenga Gboyega

Thirty-four years on from the sad experience that occurred at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria is yet to recover from the memories created by a Green Eagle Hero - Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji, bsnsports.com.ng reflects.

Born on the 19th of May, 1964 in Orlu - the second-largest city in the South-Eastern State of Imo, Okwaraji mastered two fields - Law, and Football.

Mastering the art of International Law from the Pontifical University of Rome, the central midfielder played through five national leagues - the Italian Serie A, the Croatian HNL, the Austrian, then German Bundesliga, before retiring in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League.

Starting off at AS Roma in Italy, he moved to Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia for a year, before spending another year with FC Kärnten in Austria. He moved to VFB Stuttgart in Germany in 1987, spending a season-long loan stint with SSV Ulm 1846, before hanging his boots with Berchem Sports in Belgium.

He scored eight goals in 59 club career games for four years between 1985 and 1989 and featured in eight officially recorded games for the Green Eagles of Nigeria between 1988 and 1989.

Okwaraji featured three times in the 1988 Olympic Games in South Korea, where the Dream Team lost against Brazil, Yugoslavia, and Australia.

He starred five times at the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations staged in Morocco, scoring the fasted goal of the competition in the 2nd minute of the Green Eagles' second group game against Cameroon, to help Nigeria gain a point in an eventual 1-1 score.

Okwaraji also created an assist in the semi-final clash between Nigeria and Algeria at the Complexe Sportif Moulay Abdallah stadium in front of 45,000 African-Arab fans, to draw 1-1 in regular time, before winning 10-9 on penalties.

Okwaraji featured as a box-to-box central midfielder through the AFCON till the final game against Cameroon which Nigeria lost via a slim 1-0 scoreline.

The unfortunate tragedy happened the following year in 1989 while Nigeria battled Angola on home turf while seeking to qualify for the Italy 1990 FIFA World Cup.

The Green Eagles had crossed through the first round of qualifiers on byes based on their rankings among the top eight national teams in CAF on FIFA's board, alongside Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Zaire.

Grouped in C, Nigeria defeated Gabon 1-0 in the opener with Odegbami on the scoresheet, before picking up a point against Angola in the second game and beating Cameroon 2-0 in the third.

With seven points in the bag, Nigeria lost 2-1 to Gabon in the return fixture with Samson Siasia scoring the Eagles' only goal, which preceded the game against Angola at the Lagos National Stadium in Surulere on this date (August 12th) in 1989.

Packed to the brim with 100,000 fans in attendance, the late Stephen Keshi (RIP) opened the scoring in the 44th minute to put Nigeria on a comfortable pedestal.

However, 36 minutes on in the second half, Okwaraji slumped to the turf unaided in the 81st minute, as players and the medical team rushed to his rescue. He died on the scene.

After an autopsy was conducted, Okwaraji was diagnosed to have suffered a heart condition known as Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM, or HOCM) - a condition in which muscle tissues of the heart become thickened without an obvious cause.

On the 19th of May 2019, he was honored with a Google Doodle to commemorate his legacy on what would have been his 55th post-humous birthday.

"He should be immortalized because he died on the pitch playing for this great country," said Okwaraki's teammate Etim Essien in 2019 on TVC.

"We were playing Angola to qualify for the Italian '90 World Cup, hoping to get back to reckoning after over 32 years."

Essien also indicated that Okwaraji's death led to some big guns dropping off from the team before the eventual loss to Cameroon in the final game.

"When you have top Stars like Peter Rufai, Henry Nwosu, Ricky Owubokiri, all dropping off the squad out of fear, the team became weakened as all we needed was a point against Cameroon," Etim said.

Rest in peace Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji, a Green Eagle Hero.