But for today’s Google doodle that celebrates late Nigerian footballer, Rashidi Yekini, nobody in the nation’s football management hierarchy is posthumously remembering Monday as his special day of birth. The gangling prolific striker that Nigeria ever produced remains the top goal scorer in the nation’s national football history. His admirers, in their millions, call him Ye-King.
Yekini, born on 23 October 1963 led Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles, to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.
Google succinctly puts it: “Not only did he score the first goal of the game, but also the first World Cup goal for Nigeria.
“Overcome with excitement and pride, he ran into the net and clutched it with both arms while cheering and crying with tears of joy flowing from his eyes.
”Many consider it one of the most iconic goal celebrations in football history and it served as inspiration for today’s Doodle artwork.”
The doodle’s colour resembles the Nigerian flag. In the doodle, a goalpost can be seen and Rashidi Yekini in action.
NAN reports that the late striker was named the 1993 African player of the Year and was the top scorer with eight goals.
He made Nigeria qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 1994, where he scored Nigeria’s first-ever goal in a World Cup in a 3–0 win against Bulgaria in the United States.
The legendary Yekini died on May 4, 2012, at the age of 48 and remains Nigeria’s all-time record goal poacher, scoring 37 goals in 58 international appearances for Nigeria between 1994 and 1998.
Where’s the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, in all of this or could it be that such an iconic football player has been so easily forgotten by the country?
