{"id":28941,"date":"2020-08-28T07:23:10","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T07:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=28941"},"modified":"2020-08-28T07:23:16","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T07:23:16","slug":"name-kwara-stadium-after-greatest-player-yekini-pinnick-urges-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=28941","title":{"rendered":"Name Kwara stadium after \u2018greatest player\u2019 Yekini, Pinnick urges govt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.ripplesnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/20200828_062749.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has urged the Kwara state government to immortalize Rashidi Yekini by naming a stadium after the late Super Eagles player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pinnick, who made the plea during the inauguration of the Kwara State Football House in Ilorin, mentioned other Nigerian states that have done same for their late indigenous stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yekini scored Nigeria\u2019s first ever goal at the World Cup in 1994, and hailed from Ira in Kwara State. He died in Ibadan May 4, 2012 aged 48.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an international career that lasted only four years, Yekini bagged 37 goals in 58 appearances, becoming Nigeria\u2019s highest goalscorer and holding the record 22 years after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I go to Lagos, I see a stadium called Teslim Balogun stadium,\u201d said Pinnick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cwhen I go to Bayelsa, I see a stadium called Samson Siasia Stadium, I go to Port Harcourt, I see Adokiye (Amiesimaka) Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut the greatest player ever in Nigeria, Rashidi Yekini does not have a stadium (named after him).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to make an appeal on behalf of Nigeria football to name the Kwara stadium after Rashidi Yekini,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kwara state Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, during the event, said his administration was committed to reviving sporting infrastructure to create a conducive environment for talents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Governor also commended Pinnick for his great works at the NFF and his long-standing contributions to the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the ban on non-contact sports in the state, due to the coronavirus pandemic, has been lifted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has urged the Kwara state government to immortalize Rashidi Yekini by naming a stadium after the late Super Eagles player. Pinnick, who made the plea during the inauguration of the Kwara State Football House in Ilorin, mentioned other Nigerian states that have done same for their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Name Kwara stadium after \u2018greatest player\u2019 Yekini, Pinnick urges govt &raquo; WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=28941\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=28941#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=8\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Name Kwara stadium after \u2018greatest player\u2019 Yekini, Pinnick urges govt\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Name Kwara stadium after \u2018greatest player\u2019 Yekini, Pinnick urges govt &raquo; WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=28941","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=28941#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=8"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Name Kwara stadium after \u2018greatest player\u2019 Yekini, Pinnick urges govt"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":1,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Sports<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has urged the Kwara state government to immortalize Rashidi Yekini by naming a stadium after the late Super Eagles player. Pinnick, who made the plea during the inauguration of the Kwara State Football House in Ilorin, mentioned other Nigerian states that have done same for their&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28941"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}