Rashidi Yekini is a name that will never disappear from the minds of passionate Nigerians, but the search for a successor is proving to be increasingly frustrating, particularly following the international retirement of Emmanuel Emenike.

Back in 1994, there was hope that the Super Eagles would shine in their first World Cup appearance, having just won the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia earlier. Those hopes rested on Yekini, who was the top goalscorer at the continental showpiece and the Player of the Tournament. He was also the reigning African Footballer of Year.

His mode of celebration where he gripped the net with much intensity, after scoring in the Group D opener against Bulgaria, became one of the tournament’s iconic images. The credible outing in the United States, along with the Afcon triumph, propelled Nigeria to a record high fifth in the Fifa rankings.

1994 was the year Nigeria reached its zenith in world football, and Yekini was one of the key players, if not the star man.



Yekini | a goalscoring maestro during his career

While with Vitoria de Setubal, the Kwara State native scored a staggering 90 goals in 114 games. That’s an astonishing average of 0.78 goals per game.

For the Super Eagles, he scored 37 goals in 58 appearances, another impressive average of 0.63. He retired from the national side in 1998 as the leading marksman and sadly passed away in 2012. His goalscoring record has stood for 17 years and no one has been able to surpass it or even come close.

Was Yekini so superior that no one will ever match him?

Most of those who appear in the Super Eagles top 10 all-time top scorers list have retired. The only active players are Ikechuwu Uche and Obafemi Martins. Uche has 19 goals in 45 appearances and a goal ratio of 0.42, while Martins has 18 goals in 40 appearances, and a ratio of 0.45.

Uche looks to be finished with the national side, while Martins—despite his relentless goalscoring form in Major League Soccer—still has much to prove to the national team selectors after a series of stop-start years for Nigeria.

Will anyone ever match Yekini’s record?



Emmanuel Emenike scored eight goals in nine games in 2013 some of which were crucial to Nigeria’s Afcon triumph in South Africa.

He was the man leading the Super Eagles frontline and one could have assumed that had he maintained his goal rate, he would definitely have caught Yekini up. Unfortunately the Al Ain forward never found the net in the 19 games from November 2013 until he called it a day for the national side aged just 28.

One of the great contenders has slipped off the radar.

Nigeria’s current crop of strikers includes Odion Ighalo, Anthony Ujah, Sone Aluko and Aaron Samuel. These middle-aged guys have hardly been racking up national team outings, and it’s yet to be seen if they can constantly produce goals for the national side as they do for their clubs.

Nigeria’s current future talents include Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi and Isaac Success. These guys are promising but it remains to be seen what they can do unless they start featuring regularly and hit form for their club sides.



Iheanacho | The opposite end of the spectrum from Martins

Having been called up to the squad for Nigeria's upcoming double-header against Swaziland, might Manchester City's Iheanacho be able to start firing his way towards the Bull of Kaduna's record?

It will be a long old road!

Home-based players like Gbolahan Salami, Mfon Udoh, Tunde Adeniji, Ezekiel Bassey and Bright Ejike have been invited to the Super Eagles camp in recent times, but none of this quintet can realistically come close to matching Yekini…it’s hard to seem them getting the opportunity, considering current competition in Nigeria’s forward line.

The problem is inconsistency on the part of the Super Eagles strikers.

They rarely maintain form for too long and are subsequently frozen out of the squad in favour of other promising players. That hasn’t been the case for a country like Ghana, for example, that has Asamoah Gyan as its leading scorer with 48 goals in 93 appearances and counting. Closer observation shows that he consistently found the back of the net and the result has seen the Black Stars performing well at major tournaments.

At the moment, it’s hard to see anybody coming close to Gyan, let alone Yekini.

Will Martins or Iheanacho be able to thrive where Emenike, ultimately, failed?



http://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/4079/features/2015/11/11/17199792/with-emenike-gone-can-anyone-break-yekinis-record?ICID=HP_HN_HP_RI_1_3

Goal scored Player name


37 Rashidi Yekini

23 Segun Odegbami

21 Yakubu Aiyegbeni

18 Obafemi Martins

17 Sunday Oyarekhua

14 Daniel Amokachi

14 Jay-Jay Okocha

14 Julius Aghahowa

13 Nwankwo Kanu

13 Samson Siasia