•Late Christian Chukwu, Charles Bassey and Muda Lawal
The year 2025 is proving to be a tragic one for the football fraternity in Nigeria, following the passing away of two more members of the 1980 AFCON winning squad – the team captain and defender, ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu and striker Charles Bassey. Both football legends died on Saturday, April 12 in Enugu and Eket respectively, after protracted illnesses.
It will be recalled that this same year, another member of the victorious squad, Moses Effiong, who served the team as a goalkeeper passed away on January 26 after a long battle with illness in the USA. He died at the age of 65, reports Daily Trust.
Therefore, the death of Chukwu and Bassey has brought to three the number of the members of the 1980 AFCON squad who have died in 2025, leaving many to wonder what the year holds for the men who made history as the first Nigerian national team to lift the AFCON trophy.
Christian Chukwuemeka Chukwu dies at 74
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) had announced on Saturday, April 12, the death of the man nicknamed ‘Chairman’ due to his leadership qualities on and off the field of play for both club and country.
Chukwu was in the Nigeria senior team that won bronze medals at the 1976 and 1978 AFCON finals in Ethiopia and Ghana respectively, before leading the squad to glory on home soil in 1980. He was named Player of the Tournament.
Born on January 4, 1951, Chukwu coached his darling club, Enugu Rangers (he played for only one club in his career) and then coached the senior national team of Kenya, nicknamed the Harambee Stars.
He was named Head Coach of the Super Eagles in 2002, and led the team to finish third at the 2004 AFCON finals in Tunisia. His death comes exactly 20 days after the 45th anniversary of the 1980 AFCON triumph.
And also Charles Bassey at 71
While the football community was trying to come to terms with the death of ‘Chairman Chukwu, the NFF again announced on Sunday afternoon, that another member of the victorious squad, Charles Bassey had also passed away in the late hours of Saturday, April 12.
Just like his captain, Bassey also died after protracted illness in his native town of Eket, Akwa Ibom State.
“This has been a day of double tragedy, and the NFF and the entire Nigeria football fraternity are deeply saddened by the turn of events.
“We lost ‘Chairman’ Chukwu earlier in the day; now, we have to mourn Charles Bassey. May God Almighty grant their souls eternal rest,” NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said.
Bassey, a member of the victorious 1980 AFCON squad had coached various clubs within the country, including Calabar Rovers, home-town club Mobil Pegasus, BCC Lions of Gboko, Flash Flamingoes of Benin, Akwa United and Wikki Tourists of Bauchi.
Following the recent passing of the two members of the Green Eagles squad, our correspondent takes a look at the other seven members of the squad who had passed away between 1991 and 2025.
Mudasiru Babatunde Lawal (June 8, 1954 – July, 1991)
He started his professional football career in Shooting Stars of Ibadan in 1975, the same year that he made his international debut. Lawal played for Shooting Stars for so many years and helped the club to their first continental title in 1976, winning the Africa Cup Winners Cup, the first Nigerian team to do so. After his international debut in 1975, he won 87 caps for the Green Eagles and scored 12 goals.
He also holds the record of being the only player on the continent to have appeared at five consecutive AFCON finals (1976-1984) and was a member of the squad to the 1980 Olympics.
His last international match was on 18 August 1985, when the Green Eagles lost to Zambia in the 1986 AFCON qualifiers.
Lawal also became the first member of the victorious squad to pass away. He died in 1991 and in appreciation of his illustrious career, the Ashero Stadium in his home town was renamed the Mudasiru Lawal Stadium.
Tunde Bamidele (May 13, 1953 – 1997)
Six years after the passing of Mudasiru Lawal, the man who was nicknamed the ‘Rock of Gilbraltar’ also died. Bamidele known for his imposing physique played in the 1978,1980 and the 1982 AFCON. He was also a member of the 1980 Summer Olympics squad. Bamidele who died at the age of 44 played his club football for Raccah Rovers of Kano and Taraba FC.
Martins Eyo (January 4, 1956 – 2002)
Eyo played as a striker for the Green Eagles. He was born on January 4, 1956 to the prominent family of Paul Louis Eyo of Duke Town, Calabar in Cross River State. He, however, grew up in Lagos and attended the famous Polytechnic Ibadan for his OND and HND in civil engineering.
Unfortunately, he became the fourth member of the squad to pass away after he was killed in March 2002 in FESTAC Town Lagos and his murderers have not been brought to justice to date.
Alloy Atuegbu (April 29, 1953 – May 25, 2008)
Nicknamed the ‘Blockbuster’ by the late ace football commentator, Ernest Okonkwo, for his ferocious shots, Alloy was a legend of Mighty Jets of Jos and Enugu Rangers. He played for the Green Eagles from 1975 until 1981, winning 60 caps.
Before his death at the age of 55, Alloy who quit the national team in 1981, took up coach appointments, including a stint with the national U-17 boys team, the Golden Eaglets. At the time of his death in 2008, he was coaching at Nasarawa United.
Best Ogedegbe (September 3, 1954 – 2009)
He manned the posts for Shooting Stars for most of his career and was the goalkeeper when Shooting Stars won Nigeria’s first continental trophy in 1976, the African Cup Winners Cup. Apart from the 1980 AFCON, he was a member of the 1980 Moscow Olympics squad.
Ogedegbe died at the age of 55 at the University College Hospital Ibadan on September 28, 2009 following complications from eye surgery.
Before his death, he served as an assistant coach at Dolphins of Port-Harcourt, Wikki Tourists of Bauchi and the 2008 Summer Olympics team that won silver medal in Beijing.
Okey Isima (August 24, 1956 – February 18, 2013)
Okechukwu Isima who was born in Kano, represented Nigeria in both the 1980 AFCON and the Summer Olympics in Moscow. He started his professional football career in Enugu Rangers but spent most of his career playing for clubs in Portugal. His international career which started in 1978 to 1985, saw him recording 20 caps and three goals for the Green Eagles. He lived most of his life in Atlanta in the USA.
Moses Effiong (October 4, 1959 – January 26, 2025)
Before he became a member of the Green Eagles squad that won the 1980 AFCON on home soil, Effiong had kept goal for Sharks of Port-Harcourt, New Nigerian Bank of Benin City and Shooting Stars of Ibadan.
He died early this year, January 26, after a protracted illness in the USA. He was aged 65 years.
Following the passing of Effiong, ‘Chairman’ Chukwu, and Bassey in 2025, only 13 members of that victorious squad are left to mourn their departed colleagues. They are goalkeeper Emmanuel ‘Man Mountain’ Okala, defenders David Adiele, Johnny Orlando, Sylvanus Okpala, and Godwin Odiye.
The surviving midfielders from that history making squad are Henry Nwosu, Kadiri Ikhana and Frank Onwuachi as well as strikers Henry Onyedika, Segun Odegbami, Adokiye Amiesimaka, Shefiu Mohammed, and Felix Owolabi.
