Yekini honoured with the highest goal scorer award by the LMC.
Thirteen years after Nigeria’s most lethal striker of all-time, Rashidi Yekini
died, operators of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), the League
Management Company (LMC), have instituted an award to immortalise him.
Yekini, scorer of Nigeria’s first ever World Cup
goal against Bulgaria at USA ’94, is to be honoured with the highest goal
scorer award by the LMC.
Chairman of the LMC, Mallam Shehu Dikko, said the
league is very close to the official unveiling of the Yekini trophy for the
highest goal scorer as part of the NPFL Awards which the board approved at its
meeting in June.
Dikko said the decision to name the trophy after
one of Nigeria’s most prolific forwards was chosen by the board as a way to
immortalise the player who scored a total of 37 goals in 58 appearances for the
country and demonstrated exemplary character and commitment throughout his
career.
“There is a broad plan to institute awards and
honour outstanding players, officials, key stakeholders and fans in the league
at the end of every season and there are a number of factors that led us to
reach the decision to name one of these awards, that of the highest goal scorer
after the late Rashidi Yekini. The awards are part of strategic plans of the
LMC to create commercial value and additional revenues out of the assets
inherent in the league property.
"We considered the aspiration factor which
seeks to let the players know that they too can become national heroes if they
achieve excellence and make a success of their career. It says to them that
they too can become legends of the game and the society will honour them as we
have sought to honour the late Yekini,” Dikko further explained monday.
The LMC Chairman disclosed that a monetary
incentive and other social benefits will be attached to the awards, adding that
in the case of the highest goal scorer award, “we have received a request from
the Rashidi Yekini Foundation to provide additional cash support to the winner
and we are studying their proposal. There are already plans to officially
unveil the special trophy for this award at one of the league game venues”.
Dikko said the NPFL Awards is a long term project
of the LMC open to corporate sponsors in both headline and other supporting
categories for which some corporate firms are already holding talks with the
LMC on their potential participation in the NPFL Awards.
Yekini started his football career with United
Textile Mills Limited (UNTL) Kaduna before teaming up with the then IICC
Shooting Stars, now Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) of Ibadan and finally, the
defunct Abiola Babes FC before he joined Africa Sports of Cote d’ Ivoire.
Born on October 23, 1963, the one-time Africa
Footballer of the Year died on May 4, 2012 at the age of 49 years.

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