{"id":415509,"date":"2026-04-24T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415509\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:56:10","slug":"michael-eneramo-former-nigeria-striker-dies-aged-40-during-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415509\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Eneramo: Former Nigeria striker dies aged 40 during match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former Nigeria striker Michael Eneramo has died after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest during a friendly match, the country&#8217;s football federation (NFF) has announced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 40-year-old collapsed on the pitch five minutes into the second half in Kaduna on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eneramo won 10 caps for the Super Eagles and had spells in Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Turkey during a club career which saw him earn respect and admiration for his strength, work rate and goalscoring ability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">NFF general secretary Dr Mohammed Sanusi described his death as &#8220;devastating&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eneramo enjoyed a hugely successful stint in Tunisia with Esperance, where he was nicknamed Al Dababa (The Tank) by fans because of his physical presence and attacking prowess.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He was a symbol of strength, determination and resolve, and created unforgettable moments,&#8221; the four-time African champions said in a post on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eneramo reportedly turned down overtures from Tunisia to represent the Carthage Eagles internationally before making his Nigeria debut against Jamaica in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Nigeria striker Michael Eneramo has died after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest during a friendly match, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-415509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}