BY IKENWA ASHIBUOGWU NNABUOGOR
Coach Sebastian Broadrick-Imasuen knew Kayode Keshinro even before the power striker knew himself and it wasn’t surprising he was the arrowhead in the attack for the Golden Eaglets.
Scotland were the hosts and 1989 was the year, and the FIFA JVC/Kodak U-16 Championship was the event and Keshinro was the kid on whose little shoulders the responsibility to shoot down opponents was rested on.
Keshinro, sure, did spark, the range of the net wasn’t too far for him but post-Scotland was just the story he wanted to write for himself.
In the beginning, it was all smashing affair for the Golden Eaglets’ team as coach Sabara assembled a formidable team that even soccer legend Pele predicted would not only win the U-16 championships title but produce players that would rule the world.
With the fiery attacking formation of Keshinro, Victor Ikpeba, Jide Oguntuase and Schoolboy International Benedict Akwuegbu, it was an easy passage from Africa in the qualifiers. The foursome were in devasting form shooting down adversaries in clinical fashion to hit Scotland.
Keshinro, with two in the evening, Ikpeba and Oguntuase shared the booty among themselves in the 4-0 drubbing of Canada in the opening game of the group to remind opponents they were not in Scotland for Ballycastle Piper’s Dance.
By the time they took their killer form to the quarters against the equally fit and strong Saudi Arabia, Keshinro’s World Cup outing had ended as a dream with the Asian Knights piping them in the lottery of penalties.
Tears dried up in Keshinro’s young, ambitious eyes and he had to move on. Belgium beckoned as the beautiful European country would to many promising Nigerian players and Keshinro landed with a huge bag full of potential and promises.
KFC Eeklo in the lower division won the race for him as Keshinro hoped to ghost his Scotland’89 difficult past to gloss up his career.
It wasn’t just to be as Keshinro kept gradually going down and never really hit the top just like his attack partners-in-crime Ikpeba and Akwuegbu did.
Eeklo also paid the salaries of former Eagles’ midfielder Dahiru Sadi as well as the ex-Ranchers Bees’ rangy striker “Keegan” Balarabe Abubakar but didn’t really get a scramble for Keshinro’s signature.
Keshinro, nicknamed “Keshi” after the mercurial Eagles’ captain, Stephen Keshi, for near coincidence of names, managed his fair share of goals for Eeklo for four years he spent there. But he sadly didn’t get to take his goals to the big league where Daniel Amokachi, Chidi Nwanu, Victor Ikpeba and Sunday Oliseh ran the rule.
KV Oostende, also in the Belgian lower league snapped him up on July 1, 1993, to continue his quest to hit European top level football. But it wasn’t to be as it was down the Belgian football alley he continued to go.
It was from inspiring to uninspiring for the once golden boy of Nigerian football as Keshinro slid further down the rungs in Belgian football.
Sadly, it was the amateur side SK Londerzeel that Keshinro decided to end his Belgian dreams in 2002.
That was how the story ended for the once promising striker but the big question still remains: what happened to Keshinro?
Could it be the effect of the Scotland’89 early exit that was so devastating for him that affected his professional career?
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