Examining the cursory evidence, it is safe to surmise that, since Rashidi Yekini faded out of the footballing landscape, Nigeria has had a tenuous relationship with her centre forwards.
The Kaduna Bull holds the national team goalscoring record to this day, 17 years since he last pulled on the green and white; his replacement sought after as the Holy Grail. Emmanuel Emenike has become the latest to drink of the poisoned chalice.
His farewell post on Instagram, which has assumed the status of divorce lawyer for Super Eagles players in recent times, drew the curtain on a five-year national team career. In that time, one Africa Cup of Nations trophy, one Afcon Golden Boot, and one World Cup round of 16 appearance is the total of his legacy.
It is truly depressing that, by this somewhat meagre output, he runs Yekini close in terms of achievements, if not pure numbers. However, this just goes the flimsiness of such things as individual goal-records, and raises the tantalizing question of why he feels such a drastic step, equivalent of decapitation to cure a headache, is the best course of action for a goal-drought.
Two years, while a sizeable length of time in chronological terms, is not so in international football. Barring an international tournament, there are about six Fifa match windows in a year, and accounting for losses of form and injury, it is unlikely a player features in every one.
Is it really that big a worry that he has not scored in that time? Even allowing for all-year-round fitness and form, the Super Eagles have lacked a true creative presence in the team since the retirement of Nwankwo Kanu.
Victor Moses, for a heady three weeks at Afcon 2013, fulfilled the brief, and it is no accident this coincided with Emenike’s best period in the national team.
The Al-Ain striker is 28, and is just entering his peak years as a centre-forward. Conventional wisdom suggest he can only get better, and that the fever, as it were, is about to break. Why such a hurry to retire?
His cryptic declaration that his retirement is in the interest of 'national peace' is as confusing as it is amusing. It is an attempt to drape a toga of martyrdom and selflessness (a theme that was also present in Vincent Enyeama’s announcement) over a decision that, stripped down to its bare bones, smacks of cowardice.
His antecedents at Fenerbahce, where he entered into a war of attrition with the club fans, and was also heckled for a tailing-off in form, betrays a man with very little mental toughness. It is a vital attribute in professional sport, the ability to stand up to criticism and use it as impetus for a further thrust.
The public arena has never been the cradle of unconditional love.
Nigeria in particular has always had a fraught relationship with its strikers – see Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Victor Ikpeba, Obafemi Martins, Ayo Makinwa, as a few examples; none will never be quite as good, quite as clinical, it is the eternal cycle of dissatisfaction with otherwise perfectly adequate forwards.
You never really forget your first love, after all, especially one as capable of such a feral display of unbridled passion as when Yekini roared into the Bulgarian net in 1994.
It is admittedly impossible to grapple with the dead, but Emenike’s decision will ensure that, unlike he insisted in his announcement, he will not be remembered with any great fondness.
Indeed, the reaction has ranged from bemusement to indifference, and revisionism is rife: of his four goals at that epochal third Afcon victory, two were via set-pieces – one via a massive deflection, and the other courtesy of the erratic Ivorian goalkeeper Copa Barry – one was put on a plate by Brown Ideye; the other against Zambia was the one finish of the clinical variety.
He is however correct to state his goals were of the optimum importance, even if not of optimum quality. However, he will not be missed, his contribution will not be mourned.
Yekini’s goals at Tunisia 94 were the seal of his greatness; Emenike’s in South Africa could have been his launch-pad, but by his act of cowardice, he has denied himself the chance to truly become a national team legend.
In truth, perhaps this demonstrates perfectly that this tier was always beyong him.
Posterity will not look upon him kindly.
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