BY KUNLE SOLAJA

Like Nigeria’s midfielder, Samuel Okwaraji who collapsed and died on the pitch on a 12 day date in August 1989, another tragedy was averted on another 12 day date in June 2021 in the Euro 2020 football championship when Denmark’s Christian Eriksen collapsed in a match with Finland.

Uefa said Eriksen, who was given CPR by medics on the pitch, was transferred to hospital where the 29-year-old was stabilised, with officials saying he was conscious.

Following is a list of players who have collapsed on the pitch during a match.

Samuel Okwaraji – Nigeria

The Nigerian midfielder collapsed and died of congestive heart failure in the 77th minute of a World Cup qualification match against Angola at the Lagos National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos State on 12 August 1989.

David Omofeye aka ‘Idi’ – Nigeria

Daily Times account of death and burial of David Omofeye in 1954.

The Nigerian striker who just missed the cut in the selection of the first national team in 1949 and player of the ‘Old Reliables’ Railway football club of Lagos, slumped and died at the present day Mobolaji Arena, Onikan Lagos during a 6 May 1954 first division match of Railway and Marine. He is the first recorded death on a Nigerian pitch.

Amir Angwe – Nigeria

Efforts to revive Angwe on the field failed.

Playing for Julius Berger against Maxaquine of Mozambique in the African Winners Cup, The Benue State born footballer slumped and died on the turf of Onikan Stadium on 29 October 1995.

Tunde Charity Ikhidero – Nigeria

The member of the 1989 set of Nigerian Flying Eagles died in the hospital following head injury sustained in a league match involving his club, Insurance and Niger Tornadoes in Benin on September 6, 1997.

Endurance Idahor – Nigeria

The former Julius Berger and Dolphin striker, playing for Al Merreikh of Sudan, collapsed and died in Omdurman while playing against Amal Atbara on 6 March 2010.

Fabrice Muamba -England

The Bolton Wanderers midfielder collapsed on the pitch in an FA Cup match in 2012 due to a cardiac arrest and was technically “dead” for 78 minutes before he was revived. The former England under-21 midfielder had to retire soon after at the age of 24.

Bafetimbi Gomis -France

The French striker has collapsed several times on the pitch due to a medical condition which causes him to faint. He has collapsed playing for Swansea City, Galatasaray and Al-Hilal.

Marc-Vivien Foe -Cameroon

The Cameroon midfielder collapsed during a Confederations Cup match in 2003. Medical staff attempted to resuscitate the 28-year-old on the pitch before taking him off on a stretcher.

However, they failed in their attempts to restart his heart and he was pronounced dead.

Antonio Puerta -Spain

The Sevilla midfielder collapsed while jogging back in the first game of the 2007-08 La Liga season against Getafe and, though he walked off the pitch after being helped by medical staff, he collapsed again in the dressing room.

Puerta, a Spain international, was rushed to hospital, where he died three days later of “multiple organ failure” due to a cardiac arrest at the age of 22.

Cheick Tiote – Cote d’Ivoire

Four months after leaving Newcastle United, the midfielder fainted during a training session with Chinese club Beijing Enterprises. The 30-year-old Ivorian died in hospital.

Miklos Feher -Hungary

The Hungary striker was playing for Portuguese side Benfica against Vitoria Guimaraes in January 2004 when he keeled over in pain before falling backwards onto the pitch after a heart attack.

Medics attempted to resuscitate the unconscious 24-year-old before he was taken off on a stretcher and rushed to hospital. Doctors tried to revive him for nearly 90 minutes before he was pronounced dead.

BY KUNLE SOLAJA

This is day after the Olympics, one that must be easily forgotten, at least by expectedly disappointed Nigerians, Sadly too, the day marks the 35^th  anniversary of the most celebrated on-field death in Nigerian football. 

The August 12, 1989 Italia ’90 World Cup qualifying match with Angola could had just been another match day. But it is now ever recalled, not for the result, which was favourable to Nigeria at least in the short run, but for the bizarre happenings.

It was just a day to the 10th anniversary of a previous disaster that claimed 24 lives at the National Stadium, Lagos.

Nigeria desperately needed to win the tie against Angola to be in contention of leading a World Cup qualifying group that also had Gabon and Cameroon.

The result of the penultimate match in Gabon which Nigeria against form books had lost 1-2 made the August 12, 1989 match the more important.

Besides, it was to be the first match after a long closure of the National Stadium, Lagos which was undergoing upgrading for an anticipated  hosting of the then World Youth Championship (now u-20 World Cup) in 1991.

Nigeria had had to play their home matches at the low-capacity Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan until the National Stadium, Lagos was reopened.

Expectedly, the stadium was jam-packed for a teeming crowd that appeared to have been starved for close to two years that the stadium had been closed for refurbishment.

The crowd thronged the 40,000 capacity stadium, filling it nearly 20,000 over. About 4,000 others were stranded outside, making rounds to the 12 ramps leading into the main- bowl.

Announcements blared from the public address system directing the crowd outside to gates D, E and F leading to the southern pavilion at the Lagos end of the field. Gates had been opened nearly seven hours to kick off.

The spectators’ stands were overfilled, resulting in jostling and pushing, chokes, suffocation, exhaustion, and soon, deaths! Moments before kick-off, some of the spectators around the covered terraces began to faint in ones and twos.

Few people might have noticed the unusual incident of an ambulance moving on the just refurbished tartan tracks to convey the fainted fans after efforts at reviving them by medical personnel had failed.

One after the other, fans fainted and died

Then another ambulance came again. Ambulance movements became a common sight. The stadium’s clinic with only three beds became jam-packed with unconscious people.

It turned a gory site as more and more fans collapsed …

Medical personnel said there were so many of them and they had to be treated on the bare floor. Fifteen of them had to be taken to the General Hospital in Lagos.

One Mutiu Salami, a 14-year old victim who was rushed to the General Hospital and regained consciousness three days later narrated his experience: “As the match drew to an end, everybody was rushing. They rushed me and I fell down. The next thing I knew was finding myself at the hospital”.

He was lucky. It was more disastrous for others. Five of them died. Niyi Mosuro, a 15- year-old schoolboy from Ijebu-Ode was one of the victims identified. August 12, 1989, was the first time he would watch a football match at the National Stadium.

It was the last day he lived. Wale Mosuro, his uncle, said Niyi was not quite a football enthusiast. His body was discovered in the morgue. Others identified were bodies of Shehu Tijani and Okorie Agwu.

Nduka Irabor, then the Chief Press Secretary to the Chief of General Staff ( Vice President in the current situation) was on hand to offer helping hands to the dying

Everything went awry that sunny August 12, 1989. Sad incidents that would catch worldwide attention were unfolding. From the sidelines, five football fans were suffocated to death. Football, a national passion, overnight turned a national horror.

The standard of soccer in the Nigeria-Angola match fell below expectation even though both teams paraded a pack of tested professionals. Tackling was rough. Each side lost a penalty kick. Austin Eguavoen lost that of Nigeria.

Journey to the morgue begins for the dead

But the biggest disaster of the day was imminent. As the drab match progressed, an Angolan player slumped.

Medical personnel rushed to administer treatment. It was barely 10 minutes to the end of the match. As attention focussed on the injured player, and while some fans that had fainted by the sidelines were being attended to, the unexpected happened.

Last card! The yellow card by the Togolese referee, Hounnake-Koussai may have been a warning to Okwaraji that the end was imminent.

Dreadlocks haired Samuel Okwaraji, the Nigerian bubbling mid-field maestro, collapsed and fell face down. Few people would have thought it was mere exhaustion.

The nearest player to Samuel Okwaraji, Samson Siasia, rushed to the prostrate form and tried him to face up. What he saw was frightening as he put his hands on his head in despair.

“The way I saw him, he was gasping and foaming. His teeth were gritty… No one could easily ascertain the cause of his death. It still remains a mystery.