THE 21st CENTURY ONLINE AWARDS NOMINEES FOR BEST FOOTBALL [SOCCER PLAYER] OF THE DECADE [CENTURY].

Rashidi yekini

Place of birth - Kaduna, Nigeria

Date of death - 4 May 2012 (aged 48)

Place of death - Ibadan, Nigeria

Height - 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)

Position(s) - Striker

[attacking centre forward] - nigeria.

Rashidi Yekini (23 October 1963 – 4 May 2012) was a Nigerian professional footballer who played as a striker. He is all time top goalscorer for his nation.

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 footballer, and represented the nation in seven 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.

Yekini was born in Kaduna, of Yoruba origin. 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 Primeira Liga'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 division, and those performances earned him the title of African Footballer of the Year once, the first ever for the nation.

In the summer of 1994, Yekini was bought by Olympiacos FC, but did not get along with teammates and left soon after. 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; he successively played with FC Zürich, Club Athlétique Bizertin and Al-Shabab Riyadh, before rejoining Africa Sports. In 2003, aged 39, he returned to the Nigerian championship with Julius Berger FC.

In April 2005, 41-year-old Yekini made a short comeback, moving alongside former national teammate Mobi Oparaku to Gateway United FC

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