Nigeria's Sport King Of Tweets @omaakatugba Blasts Nigeria As Vitória de Setúbal Remembers Rashidi Yekini, Trends On Twitter

Nigeria's late King of Goals was remembered in Vitória de Setúbal, Portugal 3 years after his death. Popular Sports presenter Oma Akatugba brought this to the notice of his followers and Nigerians. He eventually coined it "shame" because Yekini's country did not remember him. The piece of information went viral online via twitter. Did Yekini make @omaakatugba trend on Twitter? did you see the numbers of retweets...... check after the cut.


Yekini was born in Kaduna. After starting his professional career in the Nigerian league, he moved to Côte d'Ivoire to play for Africa Sports National, and from there he went to Portugal and Vitória de Setúbal where he experienced his most memorable years, eventually becoming the first division'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 level, and those performances earned him the title of African Footballer of the Year once, the first ever from the nation.

In the 1994 summer Yekini was bought by Olympiacos FC, but did not get along with teammates and left. His career never really got back on track, not even upon a return to Setúbal, which happened after another unassuming spell, in La Liga with Sporting de Gijón;[4] he successively played with FC Zürich, Club Athlétique Bizertin and Al-Shabab Riyadh, before rejoining Africa Sports. In 2003, at 39, he returned to the Nigerian championship with Julius Berger FC.

In 2005, 41-year-old Yekini made a short comeback, moving alongside former national teammate Mobi Oparaku to Gateway United FC.
Scoring 37 goals for Nigeria in 58 appearances,[5] 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[6]) and the 1998 FIFA World Cups.

Additionally, Yekini helped the Super Eagles win the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations where he also topped the goal charts and was named best player of the competition.[7] He also participated at Olympic level in Seoul 1988.

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 only 48,[2] the news being confirmed by former national teammates Mutiu Adepoju and Ike Shorunmu;[8] he was buried at his residence in Ira, Kwara State.

@omaakatugba trending in Abuja and Lagos