{"id":9219,"date":"2021-08-13T14:53:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=9219"},"modified":"2021-08-13T14:53:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:53:41","slug":"excellent-fc-honour-sam-okwaraji-with-memorial-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=9219","title":{"rendered":"Excellent FC Honour Sam Okwaraji With Memorial Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">Excellent FC Honour Sam Okwaraji With Memorial Match<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u00a0EFC Media<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-9220\" src=\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_20210813_1808-209x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_20210813_1808-209x300.jpg 209w, https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_20210813_1808-293x420.jpg 293w, https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_20210813_1808.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Excellent Football Club of Ughelli honoured former Super Eagles midfield maestro Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji, who died 32 years ago, by playing a tribute match Thursday (today) at the Ughelli Township Stadium Ughelli Delta State.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Okwaraji 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.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The match in Ughelli was played between the current Excellent Football Club senior side and the Excellent Football Academy U-17 team preparing to take part in the 2021 Tournoi International de Football Koumassi TIK K tournament in Abidjan Ivory Coast which starts on September 4.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">CEO of Excellent Football Club Mr Onome James revealed after the memorial match that the Late Samuel Okwaraji did enough to be remembered by the football family in Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;Late Samuel Okwaraji was and is still a model especially for the younger ones. A man who was able to achieve within a very short time what he achieved on and off the field.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;He was a professional footballer who played internationally for Nigeria at the Nations cup and the Olympics. He was also a qualified lawyer who had a masters in international law from the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;A true hero worthy to be remembered in a very big way by the football family in Nigeria. May his soul continue to rest in perfect peace and let&#8217;s us keep on remembering his family in our prayers.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Former Nigeria U-17 Junior International Akpor Simon Akpomedaye was voted the &#8220;Most valuable player (MVP) of the late Samuel Okwaraji memorial football match<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excellent FC Honour Sam Okwaraji With Memorial Match \u00a0EFC Media Excellent Football Club of Ughelli honoured former Super Eagles midfield maestro Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji, who died 32 years ago, by playing a tribute match Thursday (today) at the Ughelli Township Stadium Ughelli Delta State. Okwaraji collapsed and died of congestive heart failure in the 77th [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Excellent FC Honour Sam Okwaraji With Memorial Match -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=9219\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Excellent FC Honour Sam Okwaraji With Memorial Match -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Excellent FC Honour Sam Okwaraji With Memorial Match \u00a0EFC Media Excellent Football Club of Ughelli honoured former Super Eagles midfield maestro Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji, who died 32 years ago, by playing a tribute match Thursday (today) at the Ughelli Township Stadium Ughelli Delta State. 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