BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Titus Okere, the last of the 18 players that pioneered the Nigeria national football team in 1949 has now been buried at the Bluebell Hill Crematorium in Kent, United Kingdom.
He died earlier this month in Kent, United Kingdom where he had lived since leaving Nigeria in February 1953. He was possibly unknown to most Nigerian football administrators, hence their silence over him, the last link to the first Nigeria national football team.
Later next month, it will be 74 years since the first Nigerian national team ventured abroad. Those set of 18 players who were tagged ‘the 1949 UK Tourists’ are the ancestors of the present day Super Eagles.
Courtesy of the Titus Okere family, the Sports Village Square presents in photographs, the life and time of the last of the firsts, Titus Okere.
- Titus Okere admires his first pair of soccer boots in February 1953
- Titus Okere as captain of Lagos Railway
- Tirus Okere meets Swidon manager, Louis Page