Uchenna Kizito Okafor , often shortened to Uche Okafor (8 August 1967 – 6 January 2011) was a Nigerian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a defender. He made 34 international appearances for the Nigeria national team.

Club career

Okafor's club career took him to many countries before he settled in the USA. Okafor was drafted to

Kansas City Wizards Sporting Kansas City is an American professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The administrative offices are located in downtown K ...

in the ninth round of the

1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft The MLS Inaugural Player Draft, held before Major League Soccer's initial 1996 season, distributed players to the league's ten inaugural teams. The Inaugural Player Draft occurred on February 6 and 7, 1996 after each team was allocated four marqu ...

, and played there for five seasons before retiring after the 2000 season.

International career

Okafor played every match when Nigeria won the

1994 African Cup of Nations The 1994 African Cup of Nations, known as the Nescafé 1994 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, was the 19th edition of the African Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football championship of Africa organised by the Con ...

, but sustained an ankle injury shortly thereafter. He was part of the squad to the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

but did not get any playing time. He played one out of their four games in the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

, though, as well as at the

1988 Olympics 1988 Olympics refers to both: *The 1988 Winter Olympics, which were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada *The 1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 () ...

Post-playing career

Okafor coached for the Associated Soccer Group, a member of the North Texas Soccer Association. He was head coach for the 91 Gold Central boys team and the 93 HP Central boys team who play in the Plano Premier Select Soccer league. Okafor was a regular pundit on African

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's coverage and their ''

PressPass ''PressPass'' was a 60-minute show which airs six times a week, Sunday to Friday, and features robust soccer discussion between presenters Andrew Orsatti, Adrian Healey, Dan Thomas and analysts including Robbie Mustoe, Gabriele Marcotti, Tommy S ...

'' programme.

Death

Okafor's body was discovered by his wife in January 2011 shortly after he returned home from dropping off his daughter in school in their house in Little Elm, a town about 30 miles northwest of Dallas. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said that he hanged himself in an upstairs hallway. Okafor's family rejected the suicide ruling of the Little Elm Police Department, suspecting foul play. Kent Babb, reporter for the Kansas City Star, published an in-depth analysis of Uche's death on 19 May 2012.

Honours

Kansas City Wizards *

MLS All-Star The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual Association football, soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially ado ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 199 ...

: 2000

References

External links

Uche Okafor
Nigerian Players * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okafor, Uche 1967 births 2011 suicides 2011 deaths Footballers from Owerri People from Little Elm, Texas Soccer players from Denton County, Texas Men's association football central defenders Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's international footballers Africa Cup of Nations–winning players 1988 African Cup of Nations players 1994 African Cup of Nations players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 King Fahd Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players K.R.C. Mechelen players Hannover 96 players U.D. Leiria players Maccabi Ironi Ashdod F.C. players S.C. Farense players Sporting Kansas City players Igbo sportspeople Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Suicides by hanging in Texas Nigerian emigrants to the United States Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars ACB Lagos F.C. players 20th-century Nigerian sportsmen