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Rashidi Yekini (23 October 1963 – 4 May 2012) was a Nigerian professional
footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...
who played as a forward. He is all-time top goalscorer for his nation. His professional career, which spanned more than two decades, was mainly associated with
Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...
in Portugal, but he also played in six other countries besides his own. Yekini scored 37 goals as a Nigerian international footballer, and represented the nation in seven major
tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
s, including two World Cups where he scored the country's first-ever goal in the competition. He was also named the African Footballer of the Year in 1993.


Club career

Yekini was born in
Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the gateway to northern Nige ...
, of
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
origin. After starting his professional career in the Nigerian league, he moved to Ivory Coast to play for
Africa Sports National Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, and from there he went to Portugal and
Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...
where he experienced his most memorable years, eventually becoming the
Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...
's top scorer in the 1993–94 season after scoring 21 goals; the previous campaign he had netted a career-best 34 in 32 games to help the '' Sadinos'' promote from the
second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
, and those performances earned him the title of African Footballer of the Year once, the first ever for the nation. In the summer of 1994, Yekini signed for Greek club
Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a numbe ...
, but did not get along with teammates and left soon after. His career never really got back on track, not even upon a return to
Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the t ...
which happened after another unassuming spell, in
La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Banco Santander, Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaL ...
with
Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, ...
; he successively played with
FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...
,
Club Athlétique Bizertin Club Athlétique Bizertin ( ar, النادي الرياضي البنزرتي) or CAB is a football club from Bizerte in Tunisia. It was founded on June 20, 1928. CA Bizertin have won the Tunisian League four times, the Tunisian Cup three times, ...
and
Al-Shabab Riyadh Al-Shabab Football Club ( ar, نادي الشباب), or The Youth Football Club, in English, is a Saudi Arabian professional football club based in Riyadh. It was founded in 1947, and was at first named ''Shabab Al Riyadh''. (), meaning Riyadh ...
, before rejoining Africa Sports. In 2003, aged 39, he returned to the Nigerian championship with
Julius Berger FC Bridge Football Club is a Nigerian football club based in Lagos that was founded in the mid-1970s. As a result of an association with the Julius Berger construction company, the club was known as Julius Berger Football Club until 2010. The c ...
. In April 2005, 41-year-old Yekini made a short comeback, moving alongside former national teammate
Mobi Oparaku Mobi Patrick Oparaku (born 1 December 1976) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Club career Oparaku was born in Owerri, Imo State. He played for several clubs in Belgium. In 2000, Oparaku spent one season w ...
to Gateway United FC.


International career

Scoring 37 goals for
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
in 62 appearances, Yekini is the national record goalscorer. He was part of the team that participated in the
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...
(where he netted Nigeria's first-ever goal in a World Cup, in a 3–0 win against
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
, his celebration after scoring, crying while holding the goal's net, became one of the iconic images of the tournament) and the
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...
s. Additionally, Yekini helped the ''Super Eagles'' win the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia where he also topped the goal charts and was named best player of the competition. He also participated at Olympic level in Seoul 1988.


International goals

:''Scores and results list Nigeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Yekini goal''.''


Personal life

Yekini married three wives. He had three daughters, named Yemisi, Omoyemi and Damilola.


Death

Yekini was reported to be ill for an extended period of time. In 2011, news media in Nigeria begun issuing reports of his failing health, and he was said to suffer from bipolar disorder, depression and some other undisclosed psychiatric condition. He died in
Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its ...
on 4 May 2012 at the young age of 48, the news being confirmed by former national teammates
Mutiu Adepoju Mutiu Adepoju (born 22 December 1970) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder. He spent most of his career in Spain, amassing La Liga totals of 175 games and 22 goals over the course of seven se ...
and
Ike Shorunmu Ike Ibrahim Shorunmu (born 16 October 1967) is a former Nigerian football goalkeeper. Career Shorunmu was born in Lagos. After a few years in Nigeria he moved to play in Switzerland, and made his mark there. He was bought by Turkish club B ...
; he was buried at his residence in Ira,
Kwara State Kwara State ( yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Kwárà), is a state in Western Nigeria, bordered to the east by Kogi State, to the north by Niger state, and to the south by Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo states, while its western border makes up part of the interna ...
. He was survived by his aged mother, brother, wives and children, among others.


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yekini, Rashidi 1963 births 2012 deaths Sportspeople from Kaduna Yoruba sportspeople Nigerian footballers Association football forwards Nigeria Professional Football League players Shooting Stars S.C. players Bridge F.C. players Gateway United F.C. players Africa Sports d'Abidjan players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Vitória F.C. players Super League Greece players Olympiacos F.C. players La Liga players Sporting de Gijón players Swiss Super League players FC Zürich players CA Bizertin players Saudi Professional League players Al-Shabab FC (Riyadh) players Nigeria international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1988 African Cup of Nations players 1990 African Cup of Nations players 1992 African Cup of Nations players 1994 African Cup of Nations players Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Olympic footballers of Nigeria Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Nigerian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Ivory Coast Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Tunisia Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Ivory Coast African Footballer of the Year winners Burials in Kwara State Abiola Babes F.C. players