Yekini, Nigeria’s greatest player – Siasia

Rashidi Yekini in action
| credits: File copy

Former Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia has described the late Rashidi Yekini as the country’s greatest football star ever.

Yekini died on May 4, 2012 and at a memorial lecture and book launch in Ibadan on Thursday, Siasia paid a glowing tribute to Nigeria’s all-time record goals scorer.

“Rashidi Yekini was the best player Nigeria ever produced,” Siasia said.

“He was the player who qualified Nigeria to our first-ever World Cup, scored Nigeria’s first-ever goal in the World Cup and won the highest goal scorer at the (Tunisia’94) Nations Cup, he will always be there in my heart.

“I was not there when he was buried, but when I got a call from his lawyer, I said to myself that this is an opportunity to pay my last respect to him.

“The Nigeria Football Federation needs to do something for him because this was the player who made history for our country and he needs to be honoured. We need to honour our heroes who have done the country proud in one way or the other.”

Siasia, who played alongside Yekini for several years in the national team, expressed disappointment with the poor attendance at the memorial lecture in honour of the prolific striker as many of his colleagues were conspicuously absent.

He said, “Most of our colleagues are not here to honour the late Rashidi Yekini who served his fatherland.

“I learnt about this programme some weeks ago and I found my way here to honour my friend, who always made things happen on the field. This was an avenue to honour the player I played alongside 10 years ago.

“I didn’t know much about him because we were not very close except we are on the field or inside the team bus, where he used to crack jokes and make people laugh.

“I was so disappointed about the attendance of today’s programme, I expect this hall to be filled up with crowd. This is not the best way to honour our late hero Rashidi Yekini.”

The Oyo State Commissioner for Youths and Sports Dapo Lam-Adesina was absent at the event, while his Ogun State counterpart, Gbenga Otenuga, was represented by a permanent secretary from Ogun State, Wole Odejobi.