After retiring from football in 2008, Okechukwu retired to his palatial home at Mgboko Umuoria Obingwa, Aba, in Abia State. But he and his brothers have since abandoned the place for fear of kidnapping and armed robbery which has become the norm in that parts of the state.
Our investigation led us to No25 Umugasi road Aba, where he stayed for a short while. And the story we gathered from one Paul Nlemadim that Okechukwu has returned to his village and comes into ABA once a while.
According to the story published by busybuddies.com, the Gentle Giant is now a professional hunter in his village Abia State.
This stunning revelation was made by a Twitter user @Imamdimam who shared a tweet about the gentle giant as he is fondly called and thanked Enyinnaya Apollos for rediscovering the veteran Eagles defender.
I've always wondered where ex Super Eagles dependable defender, Uche Okechukwu, has been. The gentle giant is in Abia State. He said he's a professional hunter now. Thanks Enyinnaya Apollos for rediscovering him. What a player he was! pic.twitter.com/ll54xyqbwQ
— Imam Imam (@imamdimam) February 11, 2018
What Happened? Uche Okechukwu stayed over 20 years in Turkey and went on to obtain Turkish citizenship under the name ‘Deniz Uygar’. So how did he return to Nigeria.
According to Wikipedia, Okechukwu spent majority of his club career in Turkey where he was honoured as the foreign player, who played in the European nation for the longest period of time (13 years) .
Okechukwu played a further four seasons with Fenerbahçe, repeating league accolades in 2000–01. After nearly 250 official games he moved to fellow league team İstanbulspor AS, returning in 2007 to Nigeria first with Ocean Boys F.C. then with Bayelsa United FC (joining the latter in July 2008, and retiring shortly after, aged 41).
Uche Okechukwu played for the Super Eagles of Nigeria with 50 caps and was part of the victorious 1994 African Nations Cup squad as well as the USA ’94 FIFA World Cup squad. Uche was also part of the Dream Team that won the Gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta 96 Olympic games
