•Yakubu Aiyegbeni
Former Super Eagles forward, Yakubu Aiyegbeni,
has charged Nigerians to always try and remember him for all the good things and achievements he had with the national team instead of continually dwelling on his infamous goal miss against South Korea at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The goal missed by the former Middlesbrough striker was invariably responsible for the ouster of the Super Eagles in the competition.
But Aiyegbeni said he has done more good for the country than bad, further stating that he has no regret representing Nigeria.
“Me, regret playing for Nigeria? No chance. It is an honour for me playing for Nigeria, every player wants to play for his country.
“I was born in Nigeria, grew up in Benin, Edo State Nigeria. It is an honour to wear Nigeria’s green and white jersey,” Yakubu told Flashscore in a no-holds-barred interview.
“Being at the World Cup in South Africa is (another) great (opportunity) representing my country. We should all forget the miss and remember the good ones. It is funny when people still talk about it – it is almost 14 years already – and people still talk about the miss and not the good ones.
“They did not talk about when I qualified Nigeria for the World Cup in South Korea and Japan but was dropped; they never spoke about that. I still had the courage to take the penalty after 10 minutes and people still send me message about it missing that goal.
“I don’t think we would still win the 2010 World Cup. We have been to other World Cups plus the ones we did not qualify for but people never talked about it.
“We all watch Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, they all miss chances, but people still talk about my own miss I think people just love me for that,” he said.
