Rashidi Yekini was a Nigerian footballer who played as a striker. His professional career, which spanned more than two decades, was mainly associated with Vitória de Setúbal in Portugal, but he also played in six other countries besides his own.
Yekini scored 37 goals as a Nigerian international, and represented the nation in five major tournaments, 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.
Scoring 37 goals for Nigeria in 58 appearances,[9] Yekini was the national record goalscorer. He was part of the team that participated in the 1994 (where he netted Nigeria's first-ever goal in a World Cup, in a 3–0 win against Bulgaria, his celebration after scoring, crying while holding the goal's net, became one of the iconic images of the tournament and the 1994 FIFA World Cups.
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.
Yekini married three wives. He had three daughters, named Yemisi, Omoyemi and Damilola.
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 on 4 May 2012 at the age of 48
Source : Wikipedia
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