Yemi Tella (c. 1951 – 20 October 2007) was the coach of the Nigerian football team that won the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup.[1] He was awarded the title of 2007 African coach of the year.[2]
Tella, a former lecturer at the National Institute for Sports in Lagos, had been diagnosed with lung cancer when he led his team to a pre-World Cup eight-nation tournament in South Korea in June 2007.
A month before his death, he was awarded the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic medal - an important honour - for his achievement, by the Nigerian president Umaru Yar'Adua. [3]
Tella spent the last two weeks of his life at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital. He died on 20 October 2007, aged 56.