HEART BREAK

I was saddened this morning to hear that Ugo Ehiogu had not survived a cardiac arrest yesterday and had died early this morning. A 44 year old athlete, Ugo was a strong and fit footballer who just succumbed to a heart failure at the Tottenham Hotspur training facility, where he was part of the club's coaching staff.

Born in Homerton, London, in 1972, he started his career at the well known Senrab club (Barnes Street backwards) before playing professionally at West Bromwich Albion, where he appeared briefly between 1989-91. The 6'2" centre back eventually made his mark at Aston Villa, turning out 237 times and winning the League Cup, beating Leeds 3-0 in 1996 and an FA Cup runners up medal in 2000 losing to Chelsea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senrab_F.C. facts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjjvD2sFcGg  nice video

In 2000 he went to Middlesbrough where he stayed for 7 years, playing in defence along with Gary Southgate, winning another League Cup in 2004 beating Bolton.
After 126 games he went to Leeds on loan, then Rangers for a year (in 2007 he scored a spectacular overhead goal in the Old Firm game, voted the club's goal of the season) and then on to Sheffield United for another season until 2009.

In his prime he played four times for England, scoring once (against China in Beijing) and he also won a few U23 and "B" XI caps. He also helped coach the younger England international teams.

In 2014 Tottenham Hotspur brought him into their coaching team (U21s) and he died doing the job he loved and was very good at.

In 2012 he signed for Wembley FC agreeing to play in any FA Cup games they had, along with Ray Parlour, Martin Keown, Brian McBride, Claudio Caniggia and Graham Le Saux. In the First Preliminary Round only Caniggia and Ugo turned out, so Wembley lost- shame, end of a dream.

Ugo was married to Gemma and they had two young children. He was co-founder of the music label "Dirty Hit" producing the Brit Indie band 'The 1975'.