Ehiogu's death a big loss to soccer

23 April 2017 - 02:00 By The Daily Telegraph
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At St George's Park in November, when Gareth Southgate was preparing his England squad for a World Cup qualifier against Scotland, his old Aston Villa and Middlesbrough teammate Ugo Ehiogu was just down the corridor at the Football Association headquarters, pursuing his own career.

Ehiogu died on Friday after suffering a heart attack at Tottenham Hotspur's training ground, where he was coaching the club's under-23s team.

Former Aston Villa defender Ehiogu collapsed at the club's training centre on Thursday and was treated by Tottenham medics before being taken to hospital in an ambulance.

That day at St George's Park, writes Sam Wallace of the Daily Telegraph, Ehiogu was one of around 40 academy coaches convening for a FA course on best practice.

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He stopped to chat about the new job and the challenges of developing young footballers in the highly competitive world of academy football.

His fellow centre-back Southgate was trying to secure the England job on a permanent basis at that time and Ehiogu was no less serious about his own career.

There was nothing about Ehiogu that day which suggested that more than 400 matches as a top professional, three League Cup medals and four England caps in any way exempted him from learning the same way as his fellow coaches with much less grand playing careers. He was glad to be at Spurs and looked very much the contented former professional building a solid coaching career.

His death at the age of 44 deprives the game of a thoughtful, intelligent man who was ready to pass on his experience to a younger generation. Ehiogu won just four caps for England and though knee injuries slowed him down, he was still playing at 36 for Sheffield United before he was forced to retire.

By modern standards, the length of his career was impressive, 16 years in the Premier League with Middlesbrough and Aston Villa, a large part of that spent playing alongside Southgate himself. The England manager, two years older than Ehiogu, will feel keenly the death of his old teammate.

His England career could have been different if Tony Adams had not recovered from injury for Euro 1996, when Ehiogu was the understudy to the then Arsenal man who was a doubt right up to the start of the tournament. Ehiogu had made his England debut against China that year on the infamous pre-Euros tour to the Far East but eventually did not join his Villa teammate Southgate in the squad.

Ehiogu's second cap was in Sven Goran Eriksson's first game in charge against Spain in 2001. Ehiogu had been 23 when he first played under Terry Venables, and five years later and three England managers on he was part of a much different regime with the Swede. Speaking about that game, he said it felt like a new era for the team with him and Chris Powell in the squad.

Ehiogu scored that day against Spain in a 3-0 win at Villa Park, heading in a Frank Lampard corner in front of the Holte End. He won two more caps under Eriksson and had a chance of playing in the 2002 World Cup finals but was injured playing for Boro in the FA Cup semifinal against Arsenal that year and missed out again.

What was telling about Ehiogu was his life outside of football. He was passionate about music and his record label Dirty Hit had signed some credible acts. In 2011 he was presenting a show on the station Colourful Radio. But in the long-term he saw himself pursuing a career in coaching.

You get the feeling he would have had an excellent career as a fine coach who understood the ambitions and instincts of a new generation trying to make their way .

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