Rashidi Yekini

Rashidi Yekini was born on October 23, 1963, in Kaduna, Nigeria, into a humble Yoruba family. Beginning his professional career with Shooting Stars and Abiola Babes, Yekini was a physical phenomenon: 6 feet 3 inches tall, blessed with blistering acceleration, and possessing a thunderous strike in either foot.

In 1990, Yekini moved to Portuguese club Vitória de Setúbal, where he scored 90 goals in 114 appearances. In the 1993–94 season, he won the Bola de Prata as top scorer of the Portuguese Primeira Liga with 21 goals, becoming the first Nigerian ever to win African Footballer of the Year in 1993. In early 1994, he led Nigeria to triumph at the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia, winning the Golden Boot and Best Player tournament awards.

At the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Yekini made African sporting history. On June 21, 1994, against Bulgaria in Dallas, he scored Nigeria's historic first-ever World Cup goal. His emotional celebration—gripping the goalnet with both hands and crying tears of joy into the cords—became one of the most unforgettable images in FIFA World Cup history. Yekini passed away in Ibadan on May 4, 2012, his national record of 37 goals still standing unbroken.