Rashidi Yekini: 10 Things You Need To Know About Nigeria’s Greatest Striker Of All-Time

Today marks the 8th anniversary of Nigeria’s Greatest striker of all-time Rashidi Yekini, he died at the age of 48 in Ibadan after been abducted by family members. Yekini would have been 56-years-old if he was still alive.

He started his footballing career at a very young age of 16, Stationery Stores, before later joining Leadway Insurance. The goalsfather also played in Europe for Portuguese Primera Division side Vitoria Setubal, in one of the pre-season games for Setubal in 1995 Yekini scored an outside the box stunner against Spanish football giants Real Madrid that players like Roberto Carlos, Hugo Sanchez, Fernando Hierro. 

Rashidi Yekini: 8 years on

• Rashidi Yekini was a native of Ira Kwara State, born in Kaduna State October 23rd 1963, and died May 4th 2012

• Nigeria’s all-time highest goal-scorer with 37 goals in 58 games

• Scored Nigeria’s 1st World Cup goal at USA 94

• Was the First Nigerian to be crowned African Footballer of The Year In 1993

• AFCON Medals – 1992 Second Place, 1994 Winner, 1998-2nd place winner, 2000- 3rd place

• Was Portuguese League Top Scorer 94 for Vitoria Setubal with 34 goals in 32 games

• AFCON Top Scorer for 2 consecutive African Nations Cup 1992 & 1994

• Yekini played over 253 professional matches, scoring 164 goals.

• AFCON MVP Player of the tournament at Tunis 94

• 3rd AFCON highest scorer of all time (13)

• Rashidi Yekini remains the only footballer to have worn the number 9 jersey and scored for #Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup. Bartholomew Ogbeche (2002), Obafemi Martins (2010), Emmanuel Emenike (2014), and @ighalojude (2018) all failed to find the back of the net.

Rashidi Yekini remains the oldest player to score a hattrick in a Nigerian Professional Football league NPFL game. He scored all 3 goals for Julius Berger’s 3-1 win over @KwaraUnitedFC at MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta. He was 39 years, 129 days old. RIP Legend

Photo Credit: Getty