One of the greatest players to ever wear the jersey of the Nigeria National team Rashidi Yekini died on Friday at the age of 48. Rashidi Yekini was Nigeria’s most prolific striker as he scored 37 goals in 58 appearances for the national team. That’s a major achievement. After Yekini ,strikers have come and gone, the likes of Victor Ikepba,Julius Aghahowa,Victor Agali,Osaze ,Yakubu Ayegbeni, but none of them have been able to match Yekini’s goal scoring exploits in the national team. Even in today’s term scoring 37 goals in 58 games is no mean feat. Even the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo? don’t have that number of goals for their national teams remember as a kid waking up at night just to watch Nigeria play her first World Cup match against Bulgaria. Like everyone expected Yekini scored Nigeria’s first ever World Cup goal. He was Nigeria’s top scorer in the 1994 Nations Cup; he scored five goals and became the first reigning African footballer of the Year to win the Nations Cup. He belonged to the golden generation of Nigerian football, parading the likes of Stephen Keshi,Samson Siasia,Emmanuel Amuneke and co. In his hey days he was as deadly as they come and had this ruthless efficiency in front of goal which is lacking in our strikers of today. He was among the few African players then who played in Europe.
Yekini began his career at UNTL Kaduna in 1981 and later moved to Portugal and played for Victoria Setuba for four seasons. He finished as top scorer in the 1994 season. He also played in Greece, Spain, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia and had a brief stint in 2003 with Julius Berger. It was rumored that the ex striker lived in penury and suffered from mental illness since 2010. According to his teammates he was committed to the national team and gave his all. He never missed a penalty. Kanu may have won more individual honours than Yekini,Okocha may have been more skillful with the? ball but many and rightly so regard him as the greatest Nigerian player ever. Unlike most of his then teammates, who lead flashy lifestyles, he had no known friend or associate and was regarded as a complex guy outside the football pitch, he lived and breathed football and outside the game he was a loner. He was also the first Nigeria player to return to the local league after his sourjorn in Europe. Nigeria will forever remember the legacies of Yekini notably scoring Nigeria’s first ever World Cup goal and his celebration after the goal is etched in World Cup history. Adieu to the greatest Nigerian striker ever.