Sports
10th Memorial : Amuneke, Shorunmu Remember Yekini
Former Super Eagles striker Rashidi Yekini – who died 10 years ago – was a man ‘who can never be replaced’ and will forever remain indelible in the memory of Nigerians, the late footballer’s former teammates Emmanuel Amuneke and Ike Shorunmu have stated.
Yekini died May 4, 2012, aged 48.
The man dubbed the ‘Goals father’ remains, by some distance, the 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.
While celebrating the 10th anniversary of Yekini’s death Wednesday, Amuneke and Shorunmu said he would be forever remembered.
“Rashidi Yekini can never be replaced in our hearts. Though he has passed on, he can never be replaced and that’s the reason you can see Nigerians still paying tributes to him,” Amuneke, Yekini’s teammate at the 1994 AFCON and US ’94 World Cup, told The Tidesports source.
“For me, it was a great privilege as a kid to have nursed the ambition of playing for Nigeria and even more privileged to have shared the dressing room with him and played together at the AFCON and World Cup.
“He will always be in my heart and we can only continue to pray that his soul rest in peace.”
Shorunmu also spoke highly of the former Shooting Stars striker.
“It was just like yesterday that the news of his death broke,” he told The Tidesports source reports.
“I still miss him; anytime I have a flash of some of the things we did together in the national team, I feel bad because he was a friend, a big brother.
“Yekini was a very jovial person and the moment he entered the dressing room, the atmosphere changed. We miss his personality in our current national team. When he spoke Yoruba then, we would all laugh; he was so amazing.
“He will forever be missed because he is irreplaceable.”
A hero of Nigeria’s first World Cup in USA 1994, Yekini scored the Eagles’ first goal at the Mundial and was also crucial to the team as they ended the country’s 14-year wait to win the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994, having fallen short in 1984, 1988 and 1990 since their 1980 AFCON success.
The Vitoria de Setubal icon netted five times in Tunisia to top the tournament’s scoring charts and was deservedly named the competition’s best player.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
-
Featured4 days agoWASSCE: RSG Distributes Science Materials To Secondary Schools
-
News4 days ago
Xenophobic Attacks: Nigerian Lives More Important Than Foreign Investment – Oshiomhole
-
Rivers4 days ago
MBA Forex Trial Adjourn To June 3, Amid Bereavement … As Court Declines Cost Application
-
News4 days ago
ActionAid Demands Probe Of Govs Using Public Funds For Campaign
-
Aviation4 days ago
Passengers Stranded As Delta Airline From Atlanta Route Back Eight Hours After
-
Business4 days ago
Customs Impound N2.35bn Cocaine, 15 Trailers of Rice
-
Politics4 days ago
2027: Bayelsa Senator Gets Critical Endorsement For Second Term
-
Politics4 days agoINEC Sets Rivers South-East Senatorial By-Election For June 20