A former Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, Kashimawo Laloko, is dead. The death of Laloko was confirmed by his son, Adewale, late Sunday night.
According to his son Adéwálé, Laloko died on Sunday in Lagos at the age of 76 after a brief illness. “He had been feeling weak before he died on Sunday. It was as a result of weakness, not COVID-19,” Adewale told reporters.
The late Laloko will be buried according to the Muslim ceremony on Tuesday at his Gbonagun residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Laloko established the Pepsi Football Academy fondly called “Duro Amene” in Lagos in November 1992 and has produced some of the country’s brightest football talents ever since
The Academy nurtured many football talents in Nigeria to stardom. The list includes Mikel Obi, Osaze Odemwingie, Soga Sambo, Elderson Echejile, Joseph Akpala, Yinka Adedeji, among many others
The initiative secured the total backing of Pepsi in 1994 and has, since then, been titled the Pepsi Football Academy. The Pepsi Football Academy, over the years, has developed and grown into one of the most prestigious football academies in Nigeria.
Today, the Pepsi Football Academy comprises over 3,000 registered students aged between 6-18 years and operates throughout the year from 14 separate training centres and 54 coaches across Nigeria.
This latest death is another blow to the sporting fraternity in Nigeria which in the past weeks have been hit with the deaths of national heroes. The late Laloko was a national and international football coach, a teacher of Latin and an all-around sports teacher, mentor and trainer.
He was a great disciplinarian, a dedicated Egba notable High Chief who until his death was the Parakoyi of Egbaland. He was a coach of the Gambia national team. In January 2020, Laloko gave an honest assessment of the country’s football teams last year, claiming they underachieved.
That year, the Super Eagles finished third at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and then underwhelmed at the WAFU tournament under the guidance of Imama Amapakabo.
In his assessment, Laloko had expressed displeasure at the disappointing showings and believed the country should have performed better, slamming the administrators and coaches.
“As far as I am concerned, we achieved nothing in football in 2019. At the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, we came third and Nigerians were jubilating. We have to call our football administrators to order because we should be achieving more,” he had said.
The late Laloko was also a distinguished old boy of the famous Abeokuta Grammar School, Abeokuta, Ogun State.