SUNDAY Oliseh has made a bold claim about his former Super Eagles of Nigeria teammate, the late Rashidi Yekini.
The former Super Eagles captain and head coach has said Yekini is the greatest Nigerian striker of all time.
Central midfielder Oliseh and centre forward Yekini had incredible chemistry in their days in the Super Eagles together in the 1990s, the former regularly finding the latter with raking long balls from deep.
Together, they played important roles as the Super Eagles won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia and qualified for the World Cup for the first time the same year.
While responding to a post on X marking the 30th anniversary of Samson Siasia’s brilliant goal against Argentina at the USA ’94 World Cup, Oliseh praised both the scorer and Yekini, who made the assist.
“Samson was simply exceptional. Look at his first touch control to dribble the defender, his composure and the world-class finish,” Oliseh wrote.
“Yekini’s intelligence to first attract many players to himself before releasing Sammy with the assist is why he is the greatest striker Nigeria has ever had!!”
Yekini is indeed Nigeria’s top international scorer of all time, with 37 goals from 62 Super Eagles appearances, including Nigeria’s first-ever World Cup goal in the 3-0 win over Bulgaria at US ’94 which led to an iconic celebration.
He was named African Footballer of the Year in 1993 and was the top scorer at the 1992 and 1994 AFCONs, while he made the World Soccer Team of the Year in 1996.
He also excelled at club level, standing out with his goals at Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) in Nigeria and Africa Sports in Cote d’Ivoire before making headlines at Vitoria Setubal in Portugal (where he was league top scorer in both the second division and top flight in back-to-back seasons), Sporting Gijon in Spain and FC Zurich in Switzerland for his goal-scoring exploits.
Yekini died in May 2012 aged 48 after an illness.
