Saturday's football gossip column

TRANSFER GOSSIP

German outfit Hoffenheim plan to raid Championship side Crystal Palace for highly-rated youngster Wilfried Zaha. They hope the £4m-rated 19-year-old winger might be tempted by a move to the Bundesliga big time.

Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace could be bound for the Bundesliga with Hoffenheim

Full story: the Sun 
Hoffenheim have already succeeded in luring FC Basel's left-sided attacker Valentin Stocker, 23, to Germany, despite serious interest from Martin O'Neill's Sunderland.
Full story: talkSPORT 
Gareth Bale is not bound for Etihad Stadium, says Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini. "Bale is a fantastic player," said the City boss. "But I don't think he will leave a big team like Tottenham."
Full story: Metro 
Fulham boss Martin Jol has shrugged off Liverpool interest in his 29-year-old American striker Clint Dempsey. "I'm not bothered about it," he declared.
Full story: the Times  (subscription required)
Everton are not prepared to let any of their stars leave Goodison Park at the end of the campaign, despite interest from Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United in Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines.
Full story: Daily Mail 
Newcastle and Tottenham are interested in the services of German international defender Serdar Tasci, 25, but they face stiff competition from rival suitors Roma and Juventus.
Full story: Footy Latest 
Southampton have added West Bromwich Albion striker Simon Cox, 25, to their list of potential targets after securing their return to the Premier League.
Full story: Daily Mail 

OTHER GOSSIP

John Terry has rubbished rumours he could call time on his international career, saying: "I will never turn my back on England."
Full story: London Evening Standard 

Fabrice Muamba says: "I have been given a chance to live again. It still blows my mind."

Bolton's Fabrice Muamba refers to himself as a "living miracle". After recovering from a cardiac arrest at White Hart Lane, the midfielder says: "I have been given a chance to live again. It still blows my mind."
Full story: the Times (subscription required) 
Chelsea directors spoke with a member of the Qatari ruling family on Friday about investing in the club's future.
Full story: Daily Mail
Jose Mourinho is set to snub Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and sign a new Real Madrid deal — worth a staggering £10million a year after tax.
Full story: The Sun 
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp admits that he still has not been offered a new contract, despite having only one year of his deal remaining. Meanwhile, Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers and Wigan's Roberto Martinez are being linked with the role.
Full story: Daily Mirror 
On-loan Swansea midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson admits it will feel odd if he has to return to Germany in the summer. "It's difficult to say if I miss [Hoffenheim]. I have friends there but I wasn't playing, was hardly ever really happy. I just want to play football, but I was training, sitting on the bench, training again. Every week."
Full story: Daily Mail 
The managing director of Club England, Adrian Bevington, says new boss Roy Hodgson has remained unaffected by the negative coverage surrounding his appointment. "We want to stand by our man," declared Bevington.
Full story: talkSPORT 
Arsenal striker and captain Robin van Persie has revealed he will open talks over a new deal with the Gunners in the summer. "We haven't set a date but I will have a meeting with the boss like we did before now. We will be having a meeting about my future, and lots of other things," he said.
Full story: Metro 

AND FINALLY

In a bid to land sought-after midfielder Eden Hazard, 21, Manchester City have given the player a guided tour of the property hotspots in north-west England. Staff from City have given the young Belgian a tour of the comfy Cheshire commuter belt.
Full story: Daily Mail 

Wayne Rooney wins Premier League Goal of the 20 Seasons award

Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney has won the Premier League Goal of the 20 Seasons award for his overhead kick against Manchester City.

Several hundred thousand fans from all over the world voted for the award, which was created to celebrate the 20th season of the Premier League.

Rooney's spectacular strike in February 2011 received 26% of the vote.

Dennis Bergkamp was second for his 2002 goal at Newcastle, and Thierry Henry against Manchester United was third.
Bergkamp's flick, turn and finish at St James' Park polled 19% of the vote and Henry recorded 15% for his flick and volley at Highbury in 2000, but Rooney was crowned champion for his acrobatic effort in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
He follows another Manchester United player, David Beckham, who won the Goal of the 10 Seasons Award in 2002 for his audacious strike from the halfway line against Wimbledon.
"I grew up watching the Premier League so to be voted the best goal in the history of the Premier League is a great feeling," Rooney said.
"There's so many good goals in that shortlist, goals that I watched in my living room as a kid: Alan Shearer's goal, Paolo Di Canio's, Tony Yeboah's, David Beckham's.
"To be competing with them and winning is a great honour for me and something I'm very proud of. I'd like to say a big thank you to all the fans that voted for me."

Chealse FC the 2012 FA Cup Champion

Didier Drogba scored a record-breaking fourth FA Cup final goal to seal glory for Chelsea who won 2-1 despite an Andy Carroll-inspired Liverpool coming within millimetres of a comeback.

A quality-starved first half was punctured only after 11 minutes when Ramires capitalised on a series of Liverpool errors to burst down the right and slot into the net.

Drogba’s historic finish soon after half-time looked to have Chelsea comfortable, but Carroll came off the bench to slam home an emphatic finish shortly past the hour.

He thought he had pulled off an astonishing comeback in the 82nd minute when he powered a header at the far post, but somehow Petr Cech was able to claw it back before crossing the whole of the line, those few millimetres securing the Blues' triumph as they held off a furious final assault.

Kenny Dalglish opted to leave Carroll on the bench, Luis Suarez playing alone up front with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Craig Bellamy forward in support, while there was no place for stalwart defender Jamie Carragher.

Former Reds star Fernando Torres was named as a substitute for Chelsea, with Drogba chosen to lead the line, while Branislav Ivanovic parterned John Terry at the back and veteran Frank Lampard started.

After both sides spent the first 10 minutes acclimatising, an array of Liverpool errors allowed Chelsea through. Jay Spearing lost the ball in the centre, allowing Juan Mata into possession, who fed Ramires on the right. The Brazilian easily powered outside Jose Enrique before finishing calmly past Pepe Reina, who had committed to his dive far too early.

The Reds sought a quick response, some flowing football resulting in the ball falling for Bellamy just inside the Chelsea box. The Welshman hammered a fearsome snapshot but Ivanovic was on hand with a crucial block.

Both sides looked to attack as the halfway point of the first period passed, Salomon Kalou embarking on a mazy, unchallenged run into the Liverpool area before being caught out by Daniel Agger at the last minute.

The Dane himself then buckled swashes with his own powerful drive forward, but as he pushed on into the box, Enrique’s pass was hit slightly too hard, and the spark was snuffed out.

There was little more joy for either side, Suarez only able to stretch enough to tamely make headed contact with an inviting cross from Jordan Henderson five minutes before the break.

Chelsea opened the second period with a testing corner from Lampard, Glen Johnson displaying plenty of muscle to hold off Terry, though the Blues captain still got a desperate touch that flopped onto the top of the net.

They were on target five minutes later, though. Lampard had space to pick his pass with the Liverpool back line ahead of him, electing not to shoot but to play it in for Drogba on the edge of the area. The Ivorian took a touch and aimed through the legs of Martin Skrtel to roll his record fourth FA Cup final goal into the corner.

Dalglish threw caution to the wind by replacing the struggling Spearing with Carroll and the target man made an immediate difference.

Found by Enrique in the box, Carroll juggled and stepped over and seemed to have missed his moment to strike but instead whipped around the beaten Terry and slammed home left-footed to put Liverpool back in it.

The breakthrough woke the Reds up and they streamed forward, the substitute striker at the heart of it. His header down teed up Henderson to shoot wide from 20 yards as the crowd came alive.

Gerrard tried his luck next, attempting to meet a knock-down from over 30 yards out with a trademark howitzer, but he miscontrolled and fired wildly over the top. Carroll then came back into play as he met Enrique’s left-sided cross with a header not far off-target.

Liverpool thought the £35 million man had struck again in the 82nd minute, arriving superbly to blast a thumping header at the far post. Reds players and fans alike celebrated a goal but the referee's assistant made a superb call to point out that Cech had in fact jumped quickly enough with incredible reflex to keep the whole of the ball from crossing the whole of the line.

Dalglish's men hammered away in the final minutes with Chelsea clinging on desperately - although Skrtel had to cover for an exposed Reina at the death - but the final breakthrough just would not come and the Blues celebrated their fourth FA Cup triumph in six years.

How I Made $10m From Bayelsa State Waters Robbery

The police have made a breakthrough in a $100m robbery off the Bayelsa State waters.
This was after a suspected pirate and oil pipeline vandal, Bayo Macaulay, 30, was arrested by the police last week in connection with an alleged off-shore armed robbery incident that took place in 2010.
CRIME DIGEST gathered that Macaulay had, in company with other members of a daring five-man gang, allegedly attacked and robbed some expatriate oil dealers aboard a ship on the coastline near Bayelsa State. The victims were said to have lost the sum of $100m to the bandits during the attack.
In an interview with our correspondent, Macaulay admitted that he had lived as a criminal since 2002. Before that time, he had been a casual workers with the Nigeria Ports Authority.  After being encouraged by some friends, he had dabbled into illegal oil bunkering.
Macaulay said, “I have been into oil bunkering with the other members of my gang for many years and I made a lot of money from it. When we were working with the NPA, we burgled containers at night. Also, I have worked as a sea driver, operating motorised boats at sea. All of us lived not far from one another in the Ajegunle and Kirikiri areas of Lagos.”
Recounting the circumstances that led to his arrest, the suspect continued, “Sometime in 2010, Shehu informed Emola, who was the leader of the gang, that some oil dealers had just finished making a transaction and they were returning with a large sum of money.
“Emola told me about it in the presence of six other persons. Some of them were not members of our gang, but they knew Emola.  Before that time, I had never been involved in armed robbery. In spite of this, I decided to participate in this particular operation.
“We made our plans and when it was time, I drove Emola, Shehu and Nansiri in my boat from Lagos to Bayelsa State. Tosin and one Shola, who is a younger brother to Emola, went by road to Bayelsa. When we arrived at our destination, four strangers from another gang in the state joined us and they were armed with AK-47 rifles.
After the final plan had been made, Macaulay ferried his passengers far into the sea and only stopped after Shehu had pointed out the ship to him. While the latter led the way and went on board the ship with all the other robbers, Macaulay stayed behind in the boat in the event of a need for a quick getaway.
He said, “To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think anyone was shot, though I didn’t go on board the ship with them. Indeed, there was a lot of money on the ship and my share was $10m.”
The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr. Umaru Manko, confirmed Macaulay’s arrest. He said, “Sometime in March, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad received a tip-off from a concerned citizen on Macaulay’s activities. Macaulay was trailed to a hotel at Ajegunle, where he spent the night. He was arrested the next morning with the assistance of policemen from the Tolu Police Division on Temidire Street in the Olodi-Apapa area on his way to see his family.
“Macaulay made confessional statements regarding the robbery attack at sea near Bayelsa State and the part he played in it. The suspect and his gang robbed the oil dealers of the sum of $100m and Macaulay’s share of the money was $10m.
“With his share, he registered an oil and gas firm named Eddy and Sons Oil and Gas for N1.5m, bought an Isuzu Sport Utility Vehicle and a Toyota Sienna car for N5m, and two plots of land at Igbokoda in Ondo State for N2m. In addition, he owns a twin building of four flats at Abiola Farm in Ayobo, Ipaja, that is currently under construction.
 “After the robbery, Emola, and there other members of the gang, namely Shehu, Tosin and Nansiri moved from their former places of residence. They are all on the run. Shehu was the one who informed Emola about the oil dealers. He worked with a company based in Bayelsa State, which supplied food to ships on the high seas.
“Shehu’s company had supplied food items to that particular ship and that was how he got the information that the oil dealers had in their possession a large sum of money. Investigation is on to apprehend the fleeing members of  the gang. That is the only way to determine if any of the victims was shot during the robbery.”

courtesy of punchng.com

Burning fuel tankers consume 17 houses, livestock on Abuja-Kaduna Road

No fewer than 17 houses, a mosque and chickens were consumed in an inferno caused by fallen petrol tankers at Gangari village on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway on saturday afternoon.
The spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency, Yushau Shuaibu, said in an SMS that the incident was caused by “wrong parking.”
He said the drivers of the tankers ran away although there was no loss of life.
He stated that NEMA, the police, fire fighters, and volunteers deployed personnel in the area swiftly to put out the fire.

GOD HAVE MERCY:NNPC spends N1.35bn annually on 36 employees

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has been spending N1.35bn annually on 36 of its employees redeployed to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board.
This much was discovered and made known by the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies in its report.
Apart from the fuel subsidy issue, the NCDMB, which was established on April 22, 2010, came under serious scrutiny from the members of the Stephen Oronsaye Committee.   
A breakdown of the figure by the committee showed that each of the 36 NNPC officials deployed in the new board received on the average N37m per annum. 
The committee noted that the figure “is very high and cannot be supported when the basic salary per annum in the public sector is N216,000.”
The committee has also listed the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency and the Petroleum Equalisation Funds among agencies that should lose their independent status. 
According to the 660-page report exclusively obtained by SATURDAY PUNCH, the committee, led by a former Head of Service (Oronsaye), recommended a merger of the PPPRA with the PEF as an antidote to the fraud in fuel importation and distribution in the country. 
Oronsaye and his colleagues in the committee recommended that the PPPRA and PEF be collapsed into a single department under the supervision of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
In recommending the merger of some of the core agencies in the nation’s corruption-ridden oil industry, the committee said, “The PPPRA and the PEF be merged into a single department in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources; and there should be full automation of the bridging process of distribution of petroleum products to eliminate abuse.” 
The Committee stated that the statutory functions of the PEF could be carried out as a department in the petroleum ministry. 
The report stated that the PPPRA and PEF perform functions that have a cause and effect relationship, which makes it necessary for an alignment of functions for a better efficient service delivery.
“The committee believes that the performance of the functions of the agencies does not need a complicated apparatus in the form of two parastatals and their boards. 
“Their collapse into a single department in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources would reduce the widely reported financial and procedural abuse in the oil sector. 
“The need will therefore arise to fully automate the bridging process of the distribution of petroleum products to eliminate abuses.” 
In arriving at its decision, the committee stated that the 26-member board of the PPPRA is rather unwieldy. 
The committee members argued that PPPRA would cease to exist with the phased removal of fuel subsidy in the country and with the expected enactment of the Petroleum Act. 
Oronsaye and the members of his committee made serious observations about the administration of the NNPC.
According to the committee, the NNPC has been maintaining a workforce considered inimical to the nation’s economy. 
The committee put the workforce of the corporation at 9,765 out of which 1,386, 7,331 and 1,048 are management, senior, and junior staff respectively. 
It was also the observation of the committee that “the NNPC structure is unwieldy in terms of the size of its workforce and this constitutes a big drain on government resources.”
The committee observed that the NNPC is violating a constitutional stipulation, which forbids a minister to be chairman of a parastatal under them and recommended that an independent chairman be appointed to head the governing board by the President in accordance with “extant Federal Government Guidelines on the Administration of Federal Government Parastatals.”
The committee recommended a periodic management audit of the corporation.
It was further observed that the NCDMB and the Petroleum Technology Development Trust Fund were performing similar functions of training qualified Nigerians for placement in the oil and gas sector of the economy, which the committee said could have been performed by a single agency. 
The report said, “The committee further observed similarities in the functions of the NCDMB and the Petroleum Technology Development Trust Fund. 
“While the NCDMB focuses on the initiation, design and implementation of effective indigenous research and development capacity for Nigeria’s oil and gas and solid minerals industry, and while the core functions performed by the two bodies could be performed by one agency, the committee is of the view that the bodies – the PTDF and the NCDMB – should be merged to ensure greater synergy and have a one-stop shop for training and placement of competent Nigerians in the oil and gas sector.”
The committee, therefore, recommended that the PTDF be subsumed in the NCDMB as a way of ensuring an effective coordination in the training and placement of competent Nigerians in the oil sector.
It recommended the amendment of the NCDMB law to enable it to take over the PTDF.
The Oronsaye Committee further recommended the scrapping of 38 agencies, the merger of 52 others in addition to the reversion of the status of 14 agencies to departments in ministries.

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t recommended the management audit of 89 agencies and the capturing of the biometric data of members of staff.
 It is also part of the recommendations of the committee that the government shou  ld stop the funding of certain agencies that are expected to be self-sustaining.
On the issue of the scourge of corruption in the  country, the  committee gave some insight into its recommendations for the merger of the anti-graft agencies in the country.
The committee recommended the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau, because of the similarity of functions performed by the agencies.
The committee recommended the establishment of an independent anti-corruption agency in place of the EFCC, ICPC and CCB.
“The Code of Conduct Bureau should be merged with the ICPC and EFCC into a strengthened parastatal and that the law should accord it independence and autonomy,” the report stated.
It is part of the recommendations that the Code of Conduct Tribunal be renamed the Anti-Corruption Tribunal, entrusted with the sole responsibility of handling cases referred to it by the proposed anti-corruption body.
The committee stated that the recommended Anti-Corruption Tribunal should be “granted the status of a Court of Superior Records.”

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lso recommended is the establishment of strong departments in the proposed anti-corruption agency. These include prosecution, investigation, prevention (advocacy) and asset declaration/forfeiture.
It was recommended that the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit be made an autonomous body now domiciled in the EFCC.
The committee observed that the recommendations involving the anti-corruption agencies and the special tribunal for corruption would take a strenuous constitutional amendment, which they agreed, was worth the stress.

Soldiers kill three at Boko Haram member’s wedding

Soldiers atached to the Joint Security Task Force on Saturday killed three persons at the wedding of a member of the Boko Haram sect in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The Associated Press reports that the JTF targeted the wedding and moved to stop it.
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen tried to resist the soldiers and in the process, three members of the sect were shot dead.
More details later.

courtesy punchng

Van Vicker, Uche Jombo, others detained by police in Lagos

Van Vicker and Uche Jombo

Popular movie actor, Van Vicker was on Thursday, May 3, 2012, involved in an incident with law enforcement agents, leading to his detention at a Police Station in Surulere, Lagos State.

The Ghanaian actor, in company of colleague and star actress, Uche Jombo, among others, were detained at the Bode Thomas Police Station of the force during shooting of a movie within the area.

According to reports, the actors were shooting a scene of a movie which required the use of a Police Station and props, but were halted in the process by policemen from the Bode Thomas division of the force for vague reasons.

Actress Uche Jombo drew public attention to this latest development through a couple of posts on micro-blogging site, twitter.

‘So we are at the Bode Thomas police station watching this whole police location drama play out! #I weep for Nigeria‘, she wrote, and followed up with; ‘@uduakisong, @uchejombo, @ranigiseleVan@bobbyobodo, others are being unlawfully held at Bode Thomas police‘, she wrote.

Speaking to NET reporter, a crew member of the movie, who was herself among those detained by the police throughout the night at the said station, gave her account of event.

‘We were actually shooting a movie inside a police station, at Babs Animashaun (street in Surulere) for which we had already gotten clearance from the DPO for, when suddenly at about 9 pm, these policemen from Bode Thomas came and disrupted it.‘

She however claimed they were not arrested contrary to reports but went along with the policemen of their own volition to clarify issues.

‘We were not arrested per se, no handcuffs were involved. We just went along with them to clarify the mix up‘, she further stated.

However, in contrast to the above statement, the publicist to the actors, speaking under condition of anonymity, stated that the actors, along with the remainder of the cast and crew were actually arrested by the police, who detained them throughout the night.

‘What I can tell you as a matter of fact is that Van Vicker, Uche Jombo along with other members of the cast and crew were actually arrested by the police from that Bode Thomas station, and were detained behind the counter‘.

‘Those police people are notorious for such acts. They disregarded the fact that we had clearance to shoot the scene within that station apparently to show that they were superior‘, she further stated.

Asked what was the reason given by the police for the arrests, she replied; ‘they said that the actors were always giving the police force a bad name and above all, did not receive appropriate clearance before going ahead to use that station to shoot scenes of their movie. It had to take the intervention of certain people, and I don’t want to give names here, to secure their release‘.

Upon inquiry by this reporter at the said Bode Thomas station, the police refused to divulge any information as to why the actors were arrested. They also prevented the reporter from gaining access to the DPO in a bid to seek more information.

‘Mr Journalist, we have told you that they have been released early this morning, there’s nothing more to tell you‘, a corporal at the front desk, who cleverly shielded his name tag with his hand, stated rashly.

This incident comes on the heels of a reported arrest of Mr Vicker by the SSS for possessing dangerous weapons, which eventually turned out to be dummy guns, apparently for use as props for a movie.

He was reported to have been arrested by some men of the State Security Services (SSS) at the airport in Nigeria when the guns were found in his luggage.

He then told the SSS that the guns were props guns brought in for a movie, but had to spend the night in police custody in Ikoyi until actress Uche Jombo helped with his release following day.

ARTICLE COURTESY OF THENETNG.COM

PICTURES: Rashidi Yekini Lying in state

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The body lying-in-state

The late iconic ex-Super Eagles footballer Rashidi Yekini has been buried in his hometown – Irra, Offa in Kwara State according to Muslim rights this evening Saturday, May 5, 2012.

Yekini passed away yesterday after a long period of uncertainty concerning the status of his mental health

According to our source Emmanuel Adepoju, who was in Offa for the burial, over 500 sympathisers were present including his daughter Yemi Yekini. The burial ceremony was presided over by the Chief Imam of Kwara State.

Others in attendance include the Oyo State Commissioner of Sports, Dapo Lam Adesina, Mutiu Adepoju, Dimeji Lawal, Ajibade Babalade and a long list of other dignitaries who stood at the graveside as the Imam gave a sermon.

The Royal Father of Irra, Oyewole Oyetoro gave his vote of thanks as sympathisers dispersed.

The footballer’s death has come as a shock to fans and colleagues who are still expressing sad feelings on social networks, TV and radio.

We’re told several state governments have already begun donating money to the Yekini family but sympathisers feel the donations should have been made much earlier when the famed striker was still alive.

The Kwara State government have also pledged a sum of N1.5m to the bereaved family.

No word yet on Cause of death.

The body being lowered into the ground…

Yekini is buried at the back of his home…

At the Onira of Ira palace…

THIS ARTICLE IS COURTESY OF THENETNG.COM

B-r-e-a-k-i-n-g N-e-w-s: Legendary footballer, Rashidi Yekini dies at 49

A retired Nigerian footballer, Rashidi Yekini who scored the country’s first goal at the World Cup is dead. Yekini who was born in Kaduna was said to have died in his Kwara residence.

Though, the circumstances surrounding his death were still sketchy at the time of this story, his death was reportedly confirmed by one of his colleagues, Mutiu Adepoju, who was part of the Super Eagles team that won the prestigious African Cup of Nations in 1994.
During his heydays as a footballer, he scored about 37 goals for the country in 58 appearances.
His soccer prowess especially during the 1994 FIFA World Cup when he did a yeoman’s job in  Nigeria’s defeat of Bulgaria by 3-0.
Apart from playing for his country, he featured in other international clubsides such as Cote d’ivoire where he played for Africa Sports National, Victoria Setubal in Portugal among others.
He won the best African footballer of the year in 1993. Several calls made to one of his coaches, Onigbinde were unsuccessful.
A retired Nigerian footballer, Rashidi Yekini who scored the country’s first goal in world cup is dead.
Yekini was born in Kaduna. There were conflicting stories about where he died. While some claimed he died Kwara State, some said he died in Osogbo in Osun State. He is to be buried today in Ira.
Though, the circumstances surrounding his death were still sketchy at the time of filing this story, his death was reportedly confirmed by one of his colleagues, Mutiu Adepoju who was part of the Super Eagles team that won the prestigious African Cup of nations in 1994.
During his heydays as footballer, he scored about 37 goals for the country in 58 appearances.
His soccer prowess especially when Nigerians flashed back in the 1994 FIFA world Cup when he did a yeoman’s job in team that defeated Bulgaria 3-0.
Already, his death has been posted on the social media, facebook. He played both local and international matches. Apart from playing for his country, he featured in other international clubsides such as Cote d’ivoire where he played for Africa Sports National, Victoria Setubal in Portugal and others.
He won the best African footballer of the year in 1993. Several calls made to one of his coaches, Onigbinde were unsuccessful.
He would be buried Saturday according to Muslim rites in Ilah, Kwara State.
Meanwhile the Kwara Stae government has sent a condolence message to the family of the legendary footballer describing the news od his death as shocking.
In a condolence message signed by Abdulwahab Oba, CPS to the Kwara State Governor, on behalf of the governor, said, “Government received with great shock and disbelief the sudden and untimely death of one of the finest and dedicated football players Nigeria has ever produced, Rasheed Yekini.
“ During his active days, the late Yekini demonstrated uncommon skills on the field of play and commitment to the Nigeria project that he was known not only in Nigeria but  across the African continent as a great footballer. He will surely be missed at a time when his experience is needed to move Nigeria football to the next level.  On behalf of myself, my family  and the  good people of Kwara I condole with his family and the sporting world on this loss.”
The Nigerian Football Federation spokesman, Ademola Olajire expressed profound shock, stressing that it was the saddest football news of the year and the Glass House also sympathizes with his entire family.
Joe Erico in his reaction was short of words as he could not hold his grief . He said he would be remembered for his hard work and team spirit.
On his part, Christian Chukwu said he would remember him for his goal at the 1994 World Cup.

I shifted my wedding for Champions League final – Osaze

West Brom striker Osaze Odemwingie has fixed his wedding for June 2, two weeks after the UEFA Champions League.

Odemwingie and his fiancée, Sarah, had initially fixed the wedding for May 19, the date of the Champions League final and one week after the close of the Premier League, but his would-be father-in-law insisted he would not attend if Manchester City survived to the end of the competition.

“We wanted to get married the week after the season ends but when we fixed the date, Manchester City were still in the Champions League and Sarah’s dad, Mike, who is a big fan, said he’s never coming if they’re in the final, which is on that Saturday,” Odemwingie told guardian.co.uk.

“When he was saying it, we were laughing at the table. And then Sarah looked at me and said: ‘He’s not joking.’ I was still laughing and she said: ‘I’m serious.’ So because of him we had to have it two weeks later. It was too late to change when Manchester City went out of the Champions League. And Sarah has something in her head that once a date is fixed, it has to be done then. So we left it.”

Odemwingie finds the whole episode hilarious and breaks into more laughter when he recalls Albion’s meeting with City at The Hawthorns on Boxing Day. “Sarah’s family are all Man City fans and they had to sit with the West Brom supporters but her dad couldn’t help but sing the City songs. His wife was hitting him, saying: ‘Will you stop that!’ They were looking forward to winning the game but it was a 0-0 draw so I changed my shirt with Vincent Kompany and gave it to Mike as a consolation. I said, ‘Here you are, don’t cry (about the result)’.”

He was the fifth highest Premier League scorer last term with 15 goals and although he is frustrated that ankle, knee and hamstring injuries disrupted a second season that he describes as “a little strange”, he has still managed to score nine times in the top flight at a rate of one every three appearances. Five of those goals came in February, including a hat-trick in the 5-1 victory over Wolves that has left an indelible mark on one fan.

“There was a guy who came to the training ground, he looked so bright and it was maybe two months after the game,” says Odemwingie. “He showed me a tattoo on his leg with my face and me holding up three fingers. I couldn’t say anything. I was shocked, positively shocked that it meant so much that he could go and do that. I said to Youssouf Mulumbu: ‘Youss, do you know what I just saw? I saw a tattoo of my face on someone’s leg because of that Wolves game!’”