Former Super Eagles Striker Rashidi Yekini dies at 48
Posted by Linda Ikeji at 10:24 PM (Nigerian Time), Linda Ikeji’s Blog, May 4, 2012
One of the greatest players Nigeria ever had, Rashidi Yekini, is dead. The two-time African Footballer of the Year died this evening in Kwara after a prolonged illness. He was just 48 years old. Yekini was Nigeria’s national team highest/record goal scorer, scoring 37 goals in 58 appearances.
He’s survived by two children. So so sad. May his soul rest in peace, amen.
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Even though I was away when Yekini became a super star and the era of instant communication was still in the near future, I first saw him (on television) perform at the 94 World Cup at Los Angeles where he scored that memorable goal against the Bulgarian team in a 3-0 rout that got every team scared at such a great performance. And my, what a goal that Nigeria’s first World Cup goal was!
U.S. papers, especially those in areas with large soccer followers like Los Angeles with its large Latin-American populations had its local L.A. TIMES go into high gear with superlatives. A paper described Yekini’s dramatic action as he held the net tightly after the goal as “near-spiritual”! While I cannot understand till this day how that same team played a lackluster next game against a Roberto Baggio-led equally lackluster Italian team – and lost, THAT work of art by Yekini has forever remained with me.
Of course as usual with Nigeria where those who harvest where they were not never present at sowing time. I’ve read of the itinerant life Yekini lived in his attempt to make a living from a professional career and how he was abandoned by a country for which he was the highest goal scorer on the international stage.
While characters like Amos Adamu became super wealthy from sports administration in Nigeria and filled the Nigerian Football Federation with his relations, those who actually labored for the sports and enhanced the image of the country on the world stage have always been neglected.
“Imagine Dayo Achor, Eagles secretary is son of Adamu’s sister and Adelowo, NFF cashier is younger brother of Adamu’s wife. This, in a country of over 140 million people and one man decided to fix 2 of his siblings in 2 sensitive positions in NFF. We do not even know of other positions he has his siblings. He installed Lulu and now he is trying to install a new person that had been in that office before, with little or no known contributions …” [From my column, The Nation on Sunday, July 2010]
For example, I had first-hand knowledge of how the kids that Muda-Lawal left behind were promised the world when the young man died but the pledged-help to his widow and kids was reneged upon once he was dead. That was not the first time of a state in Nigeria or even the federal government would turn its back on those who deserve to be helped when they are no longer in positions of serving the country.
The guy who designed the national flag supposedly died in penury although Oyo State reportedly tried to help him in his hours of dire need.
Rashidi Yekini was our hero and if the words of the National Anthem count for anything - “… the labors of our heroes past/shall never be in vain/… – this kind of MIS-treatment of those who actually made Nigeria proud must stop.
It is not that Britain would dole houses or cash – as such – to those who make her proud on the world stage but apart from Queen’s honor – knighthood – avenues to cash in on medals at world competitions are always open to her athletes. And, of course, ditto the Americans.
Soccer is not yet a great American sport but even the women players have gone on to make very decent living after winning in international competitions. Consider, for example, Brandi Chastain, the bra-baring forward who won for the USA with a penalty over China in the late 90s. Brandi not only made the covers of publications, including Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, she got ad promotions, appeared in a movie (documentary), has been a commentator on one of the television networks at an Olympics while she is a regular color commentator on soccer.
Each time I drive through the U.S. Agricultural Research premises – a serene and short cut I use a whole lot when in the Washington area, I always wonder at the honor done George Washington Carver (1864 – 1943) by naming a part of the huge research center after him. While Carver was a great scientist and inventor who – apart from devising many products from the then lowly peanuts (groundnuts) – researched into alternate food crops for cotton, he was born into slavery.
Yekini’s case must not be allowed to add to the statistics of neglect that has characterized those who represented Nigeria and raised her profile. That electric moment in 1994 – alone – that Yekini provided for us apart from being the country’s highest international goal scorer must not be allowed to be forgotten.
May he find peace with his Maker, and may the family he left behind be comforted by He who alone can comfort. Hopefully, government would assist his kids who must still be very young.
TOLA ADENLE
May 5, 2012.
October 12, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him.
May 5, 2012 at 10:53 pm
I lifted the football career of Rasheed Yekini as accounted by a Rev. Father on our site to let people know his professional football career. Like you said, people of his category here in Britain are rich enough to cater for their family according to laid down procedures because they more or less become celebrites. But the reverse is the case in Nigeria. Once they are not rich enough to cater for themselves that is the end of the whole thing.
There have been so many of them like those whose families are left to wallow in poverty. This brings to my mind the question I have been battling with for some time now: is it worth it to die or even labor for this country? Patriotism is a different thing. I am proud to be a Nigerian anywhere but with the situations of things now in the country, it is difficult to sacrifice anything in the name of Nigeria. I can, however, pick up arms with others to rid the country of the parasites we have amongst us who are feeding fat on the treasures of this country.
Rasheed died in poverty with serious sickness after putting the name of this country on the global map of world football with others. May his gentle soul rest in peace.
PROFILE OF LATE RASHIDI YEKINI Rashidi Yekini (born 23 October 1963) was a Nigerian retired footballer who played as a striker. He scored Nigeria’s first goal in a FIFA World Cup. He died on 4 May 2012. Club career Yekini was born in Kaduna. After starting his professional career in the Nigerian league, he moved to …Côte d’Ivoire to play for Africa Sports National. From there he went to Portugal and Vitória de Setúbal, where he experienced his most memorable years, eventually becoming the Portuguese first division’s top scorer, in 1993–94, as his performances (32 matches, 34 goals) earned him the title of African Footballer of the Year in 1993, the first ever from the nation. In the 1994 summer, Yekini was bought by Olympiacos FC, but did not get along with teammates and left. His career never really got back on track, not even upon a return to Setúbal, which happened after another unassuming spell, in La Liga with Sporting de Gijón. He successively played with FC Zürich, Club Athlétique Bizertin and Al-Shabab Riyadh, before rejoining Africa Sports. In 2003, at 39, he returned to the Nigerian championship with Julius Berger FC. In 2005, 41-year old Yekini made a short comeback, moving alongside former national teammate Mobi Oparaku to Gateway FC. International career Scoring 37 goals for Nigeria’s national side in 58 appearances,[1] Yekini is the national record goalscorer.
He was part of the team that participated in the 1994 FIFA World Cup (where he scored Nigeria’s first-ever goal in a World Cup, in a 3–0 win against Bulgaria) and the 1998 World Cup. Additionally, Yekini also helped the Super Eagles win the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations, where he also topped the goal charts, and participated at Olympic level, in Seoul 1988. Years Team App and Goals 1981–1982UNTL Kaduna 1982–1984Shooting Stars 1984–1987Abiola Babes 1987–1990Africa Sports 1990–1994Vitória Setúbal108(90) 1994–1995Olympiacos4(2) 1995–1996Sporting Gijón14(3) 1997Vitória Setúbal14(3) 1997–1998Zürich28(14) 1998–1999Bizerte 1999Al-Shabab 1999–2002Africa Sports 2002–2003Julius Berger 2005Gateway.
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May 6, 2012 at 11:40 am
Dear Fatai,
Thanks very much for your comments, especially for adding the professional bio that those of our many non-Nigerian readers may not know.
I know, many often feel utter desperation as you do feel about the hopelessness of the Nigerian situation, especially as the level of corruption and insensitivity to what really matters seem unfathomable. Nevertheless, we can only hope that before it gets to the level of armed confrontation, the country’s ruling class will wake up to reality and amend their ways.
Regards,
TOLA.