Ex-KC Wizards Star Uche Okafor Actually Committed Suicide - Medical Examiner

By Web Staff

LITTLE ELM, Texas — 

Authorities say former Nigerian soccer star Uche Okafor committed suicide at his Dallas-area home this week. He was 43.

Okafor's body was discovered Thursday afternoon by his wife in their house in Little Elm, a town about 30 miles northwest of Dallas. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday that he hanged himself in an upstairs hallway.

Okafor played on the 1994 Super Eagles team that won the African Cup of Nations. Nigeria reached the second round of the World Cup that year and again in 1998, with Okafor on the team both times.

Okafor played for the Kansas City Wizards, now Sporting Kansas City, from 1996 to 2000.

According to the Sporting Kansas City website, Okafor was part of the Kansas City roster that debuted in 1996 and he played with the team until 2000, appearing in 119 regular season games and another seven in the postseason. He was part of the Kansas City team that won the MLS Cup in 2000, logging 16 minutes as a substitute in the championship game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., that year.

“It’s shocking and very sad,” said former Kansas City coach Bob Gansler, who coached the team during the 2000 championship season, in a statement on the Sporting Kansas City website. “One would not have thought that such a tragedy would involve Uche. We are less one outstanding individual today, that’s for sure.”

A physical, 6-foot-3 defender from Nigeria, Okafor started all 30 games during Kansas City’s inaugural season in 1996 and appeared in at least 14 games each season he was in the league. He also appeared in all four of the team’s postseason games during the 1996 season.

"He was very influential for us," said Diego Gutierrez, the current Philadelphia Union head of scouting and player development and a teammate of Okafor's in Kansas City in 1996 and 1997, in a statement. "We had a good, good defensive line, and it was led by Uche. With his experience and his international pedigree, he was the rock for us. Hearing of his passing is a tremendous blow, because he wasn't just a good soccer player, he was a tremendous person. He was always upbeat."

"He would laugh and smile with everybody. He had one of the all-time great laughs in MLS history," said Alexi Lalas, who played on the back line with Okafor during the 1999 season in Kansas City. "But behind that laugh, there was this incredibly tenacious beast of a defender. You didn't want to be on the end of a Uche Okafor tackle, I can tell you that.

"It was a real honor to know him and to play along side him," Lalas added in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.