By Victor Kanayo
World football governing body, FIFA, on Thursday May 4, 2023 remembered former Nigerian Super Eagles goal poacher, Rashidi Yekini, 11 years after his death.
FIFA’s short tribute was contained in a tweet same day.
The tribute reads, “The first player to score a #FIFAWorldCup goal for the @NGSuperEagles
“We’ll never forget Rashidi Yekini’s passionate celebration.
“Paying tribute to Nigeria’s all-time leading scorer and #FIFAWorldCup history-maker.”
Yekini died in 2012. He remains Nigeria’s all-time leading scorer and FIFA World Cup history-maker.
In a hall of tribute, FIFA took time out to eulogise Yekini in 2022, when it turned 10 years after he was committed to mother earth.
Part of that tribute read, “The man dubbed Nigeria’s ‘Goalsfather’ remains, by some distance, his country’s greatest and most prolific marksman. No-one has even come close to matching his impressive haul of 37 strikes from just 58 appearances. Yekini also specialised in historic goals, from the efforts that propelled Nigeria to their first FIFA World Cup and earned them a second African crown to, most famously of all, the one that opened their account at the global finals.
“That poacher’s finish in Dallas’s Cotton Bowl, and the raw emotional celebration that followed, remains the indelible, defining image of this tragic hero. But while the goal provided Nigeria with a platform to beat Hristo Stoichkov’s Bulgaria in their World Cup debut, then qualify from a tough section, the sight of its scorer feverishly grabbing at the net, crying “It’s me! It’s me!” elicits mixed emotions.”
